Question

Module #5 – Basic Psychological Processes: Explain how alcoholism, or other forms of addiction, can impact the brain’s ability to consolidate memory. How do these issues eventually impact our overall intelligence?

Answer 1

Alcohol can disrupt the processes that underlie memory consolidation by interfering with long-term potentiation (LTP), which is a key mechanism required for forming new memories. Alcohol has been found to impair the storage of novel stimuli but not that of previously learned information. In fact, studies have demonstrated that previously learned information is stronger following a period of alcohol intoxication (Carlyle et al., 2017).

However, individuals who are heavy drinkers tend to have smaller sizes of the hippocampus, a central brain region for learning and memory and portions of the frontal lobes, an area responsible for planning, withholding responses, making decisions, and regulating emotions (Medina et al., 2008). Chronic use of heavy levels of alcohol is associated with adverse effects on brain structure and function and can, therefore, lead to deterioration of the abuser's overall intelligence.

References:

Carlyle, M., Dumay, N., Roberts, K., Mcandrew, A., Stevens, T., Lawn, W., & Morgan, C. J. (2017). Improved memory for information learnt before alcohol use in social drinkers tested in a naturalistic setting. Scientific Reports, 7(1).

Medina, K., McQueeny, T., Nagel, B., Hanson, K., Schweinsburg, A., & SF, T. (2008). Prefrontal cortex volumes in adolescents with alcohol use disorders: Unique gender effects. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 32, 386-394.