A group of Spanish researchers found it relevant to analyze the way in which bingeing on alcohol can often affect the cognitive abilities of university students .
To investigate this question, Diana Salas, from the University of Cantabria, and her collaborators, carried out a study in which a total of 206 university students between the ages of 17 and 22 participated. All of them were asked questions about their lifestyle (for example, physical exercise, alcohol consumption …) and also various memory tests were carried out, as well as what has been called ‘executive functions’, which are those capacities. that allow us to set goals and organize the plans and steps necessary to achieve them.
The participants were classified according to their alcohol consumption habits , differentiating the group of those who had binge drinking (almost 48% of the total participants) and the group of those who did not show this pattern of drinking. alcohol. When analyzing the results in the neuropsychological tests, certain differences were observed between both groups. The data, recently published in the journal PLoS ONE (2016), showed that the group that ingested alcohol in the form of ‘binges’ performed significantly worse in executive functions tasks, specifically in a measure of mental flexibility and complex attention. Importantly, furthermore, the results showed that the test scores were worse the younger one started to consume alcohol, which the authors interpreted as a cumulative factor of harm.
These results make us reflect on the importance of educating young people about the consequences of drinking alcohol in large quantities and eliminating false beliefs about its safety. Another question of interest is whether there is any possibility of reversing these negative effects on intellectual functions. Would it be possible to improve mental performance with cognitive training? Further research will be needed to find out, but what is clear is that we have many tasks ahead of us in terms of prevention and intervention in alcohol use.
Marisa Fernández Sánchez, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
