Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Just a few drinks can change how memories are formed

news.brown.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 135 posts

Re: Just a few drinks can change how memories are formed

#41

Post by mirimir »

Apocryphon wrote: post #11

Weirdly enough, at certain amounts of alcohol, I start to think about memories I haven't had in years. Nothing traumatic nor nostalgic, but just mundane memories from school or childhood. I suppose it's just the mind wandering to thoughts it normally doesn't think about while inebriated, forming unusual connections.

And so we have "Diamonds and Rust" :)

original Joan Baez version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ST9TZBb9v8

Judas Priest version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OHJP1BSVgM

Re: Just a few drinks can change how memories are formed

#42

Post by obstacle1 »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #34
minikites wrote: post #30

If alcohol were invented today, I don't think there's any way it would be legal in most nations. The only reason we tolerate it as a society is millennia of inertia.

Geez, lighten up. Yes, some people definitely develop alcohol addiction but about 80% do not and are free to enjoy good quality drinks that not only give you a buzz, but also potentially taste great like good wine or whisky or mezcal.

The entire point of this thread is that even small doses of alcohol -- doses well within what we consider to be moderate drinking -- have fairly extreme negative effects on memory. This is a problem even for the 80% of drinkers who do not develop alcohol addiction.

As we start to actually study the effects of alcohol, it really looks like it is a hard drug with no net positive effects at anything over a minuscule dose.

Re: Just a few drinks can change how memories are formed

#44

Post by mirimir »

So does 10 mg zolpidem tartrate. As in, totally prevents memory formation. Gotta be careful with that stuff.

And prototypically, marijuana. Back in the day, I'd always see movies stoned. That way, if I liked them, I could see them again freshly. And if I didn't liked them, I could forget about them more easily.

Re: Just a few drinks can change how memories are formed

#45

Post by dexwiz »

relaxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: post #32
ra88it wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I think it is quite normal. Alcohol is a cheap, ubiquitous drug that helps us relax today, for a roughly proportionate cost which we can pay tomorrow (plus whatever longer-term costs like liver damage or memory formation which we can ignore or put off for even longer). It's not confusing or unintuitive. Alcohol helps us relax. That's all it does! Which leads to all the other behaviors that are secondary to sudde…

Could you say relax again for me please?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3_2entulkw

Re: Just a few drinks can change how memories are formed

#46

Post by minikites »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #34
minikites wrote: post #30

If alcohol were invented today, I don't think there's any way it would be legal in most nations. The only reason we tolerate it as a society is millennia of inertia.

Geez, lighten up. Yes, some people definitely develop alcohol addiction but about 80% do not and are free to enjoy good quality drinks that not only give you a buzz, but also potentially taste great like good wine or whisky or mezcal.

There's increasing evidence showing that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption and that the supposed benefits are outweighed by the harms:

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-45283401

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Development_of_a_rat...

I think outlawing it now would be about as successful as the first Prohibition in the USA (i.e. not at all) but I do think it should be regulated more closely (e.g. very strong restrictions on alcohol advertising and perhaps plain packaging and black box warnings similar to cigarette packaging) and that the dangers of alcohol should be taught more widely.

Re: Just a few drinks can change how memories are formed

#47

Post by minikites »

joegyoung wrote: post #36
minikites wrote: post #30

If alcohol were invented today, I don't think there's any way it would be legal in most nations. The only reason we tolerate it as a society is millennia of inertia.

In the Clean episode of "How we got to now" with Steven Johnson, Steven states that the beer-brewing process kills disease. Although no-one realises this in the middle of the 19th century, it means if you live in an unclean environment, beer is a very sensible drink. >> https://subsaga.com/bbc/documentaries/science/how-we-got-to-...

Beer in the medieval period through 19th century was hardly alcoholic, so this is a foolish argument.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_beer

>At mealtimes in the Middle Ages, everyone could drink small beer, including children, while eating a meal at the table. Table beer was around this time typically less than 1% ABV.

Re: Just a few drinks can change how memories are formed

#48

Post by mactrey »

Elof wrote: post #14
_8j50 wrote: post #6

There is emotional pain and then there is physiological pain. Drugs and alcohol alleviate emotional pain and have physilogical "pleasure" effects in some cases. But most of the negative effects that are frequently talked about are physiological. Apples shouldn't be compared to oranges. A good comparison would for example be to compare the pleasures of drugs against the emotional toll caused by the negative sociologic…

I think, because of how society views alcohol, it's possible for not drinking to have a negative sociological and emotional effect. For example, someone gets passed up for a promotion because they don't go out to happy hour.

Not drinking can have a negative sociological and emotional effect regardless of how society views alcohol. I've had numerous interesting/strange life experiences that probably wouldn't have been possible without alcohol. I'll gladly pay the price of having a few bad hangovers and worse factual recall to (hopefully) continue to have those kinds of experiences.

Re: Just a few drinks can change how memories are formed

#49

Post by lainga »

relaxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: post #32
ra88it wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I think it is quite normal. Alcohol is a cheap, ubiquitous drug that helps us relax today, for a roughly proportionate cost which we can pay tomorrow (plus whatever longer-term costs like liver damage or memory formation which we can ignore or put off for even longer). It's not confusing or unintuitive. Alcohol helps us relax. That's all it does! Which leads to all the other behaviors that are secondary to sudde…

Could you say relax again for me please?

On a tangential note, I have heard that the impulse in native English to avoid repeating a word over and over is not universal; in some languages, it's perfectly normal. In some cases I think this impulse does nothing more than swap one repetitive word for a repetitive sequence of words (count the number of news pieces where the second reference to an earthquake is a "temblor").

Re: Just a few drinks can change how memories are formed

#50

Post by vasilipupkin »

minikites wrote: post #46
vasilipupkin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geez, lighten up. Yes, some people definitely develop alcohol addiction but about 80% do not and are free to enjoy good quality drinks that not only give you a buzz, but also potentially taste great like good wine or whisky or mezcal.

There's increasing evidence showing that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption and that the supposed benefits are outweighed by the harms: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-45283401 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Development_of_a_rat... I think outlawing it now would be about as successful as the first Prohibition in the USA (i.e. not at all) but I do think it should be regulated more closely (e.g. ver…

This evidence is extremely weak. I urge you to read the actual paper itself. Basically you can nullify all that evidence if you don’t drink and drive.
Post reply on HN