Alcohol Helps You Remember What You Learned Earlier, Study Shows

　　研究表明：酒精可以使人记起先前所学的知识

　　Drinking booze after learning new information can help our brains store away what we took in when we were still sober, according to new research, even though alcohol is traditionally linked to problems forming memories.

　　一直以来，酒精都被当作是扰乱记忆形成的因素，然而，一项新的研究表明，学习新知识后的放纵豪饮可以帮助大脑记忆清醒时所学的内容。

　　The word-learning task given to the study participants sheds some more light on the way alcohol affects memory, and the way the brain stores information in general, though we wouldn't recommend getting drunk every time you've got something new to remember.

　　研究者为参与者们安排了词汇学习的任务，这一任务进一步揭示了酒精是如何影响记忆的，也揭示了大脑一般是如何存储信息的，当然我们并不推荐你每次学习新知识的时候都喝得酩酊大醉。

　　According to the team from the University of Exeter in the UK, the research backs up previous studies carried out in the lab, but this time in a natural setting where participants were drinking in their own homes.

　　英国艾克斯特大学研究小组的研究也论证了之前研究，但这一次研究的背景更为自然，研究者们是在自己家里喝的酒。.

　　So after a few drinks, you stop taking in any new information, which means anything you learned earlier in the day has more chance to take root.

　　因此，小酌几杯后，你的大脑就停止吸收新信息了，因此你之前所学的的内容就更有机会深植于脑海。

　　"The theory is that the hippocampus – the brain area really important in memory – switches to consolidating memories, transferring from short into longer-term memory," says Morgan.

　　研究者摩根说：“这是因为海马——脑中主管记忆的区域——转而开始巩固记忆，将短期记忆转换为长期记忆。”

　　In other words a session on the booze means the hippocampus has no new information to encode, so it busies itself with encoding older information instead.

　　换句话说，酒精使得海马去没有新信息可以用来进行编码，因此它转而去编码旧信息。.

　　The researchers are keen to stress that the study should only be considered in the context of what we already know about alcohol: that too much of it can seriously harm your memory and health over the long term.

　　研究们不断强调这一研究只是基于我们对酒精的固有认知，即长期饮酒过量会损害记忆和健康。

　　Another point the team makes is that sleep may have had some impact on locking in memories overnight, something which future studies could look into.

　　该研究小组还认为，睡眠对保持记忆也有一定影响，这一理论还有待于进一步研究。

　　The findings have been published in Scientific Reports.

　　这一研究结果已刊登在《科学报告》上。