研究表明喝酒能提高记忆

Many of us have woken up the morning after the night before with a fuzzy recollection of our alcohol-induced antics. So it may surprise you to learn that drinking can actually help improve your memory. According to a new study by the University of Exeter, people who drink alcohol after studying information are better at remembering what they've learnt.

醉酒后的第二天早晨，很多人醒来时都会对酒精引起的可笑举动有模糊记忆。因此当你得知喝酒真的能帮助提高记忆力时，你可能会十分吃惊。埃克塞特大学的一项新研究表示：在学习新知识之后喝酒更有助于记忆学到的知识。

The researchers asked 88 people to complete a word-learning task. The participants were then split in half, with one group being asked to drink as much alcohol as they wanted afterwards - the average was four units. The other group were told not to drink at all. The following day, all participants repeated the task, and those who'd drunk alcohol were found to perform better, remembering more of what they'd learned.

研究人员要求88人完成一项词汇学习任务。受试者被分成两组，其中一组在学完之后，被要求想喝多少酒就喝多少--平均为4杯。另一组被告知不准喝酒。第二天，所有的受试者都重复任务，研究发现：喝酒的人表现得更好，记住的词汇更多。

However the researchers stress that this small positive effect of drinking alcohol should not negate the well-established harmful consequences associated with alcohol, including negative effects on memory and mental and physical health. But the study, appears to suggest that drinking more in certain situations can aid memory.

然而，研究人员强调这一喝酒的小小积极益处不应该抵消与酒精相关的明确的有害影响，比如：对记忆和身心健康的消极影响。但是，这项研究似乎表明：在特定情况下喝酒能帮助提高记忆力。

"Our research not only showed that those who drank alcohol did better when repeating the word-learning task, but that this effect was stronger among those who drank more," said Professor Celia Morgan of the University of Exeter.

"我们的研究不仅表明那些喝酒的人在重复词汇学习任务中的表现更好，还表明那些喝得多的人其表现更好，"埃克塞特大学的西莉亚·摩根教授说道。

The causes of this effect are not fully understood, but the leading explanation is that alcohol blocks the learning of new information and therefore the brain has more resources available to lay down other recently learned information into long-term memory. "The theory is that the hippocampus - the brain area really important in memory - switches to 'consolidating' memories, transferring from short into longer-term memory."

研究员尚未完全了解造成这一现象的原因，但主要的解释就是酒精阻碍了新知识的学习，因此大脑有更多的资源可以将最近所学的信息存储到长期记忆中。"该理论就是海马效应--对记忆十分重要的大脑区域--切换到'巩固'记忆，从短期记忆转变为长期记忆。"

This study wasn't the first of its kind, but previous research into the subject had only been carried out in scientific conditions. This was the first one where people drank in their own homes. As well as the word-learning task, the participants - 31 of whom were male, 57 of whom were female, all were aged 18 to 53 - undertook a second task involving looking at images on a screen.

该项研究并非首例，但先前只是在科学的情况下开展了有关该话题的研究。这是人们自己在家喝酒的首个研究。同样，词汇学习任务，受试者--31位男性，57位女性，岁数都在18至53岁--也进行了第二项任务：看大屏幕上的图片。

This task was carried out after the drinkers had drunk alcohol and then again the next day, but there was no significant difference in memory between those who'd drunk and those who hadn't.

在这些人喝完酒之后，研究员才开展了这项任务，但第二天并未发现喝酒和未喝酒的人在记忆上有明显差别。