RATIONALE: Whilst the deleterious effects of alcohol on retrospective remembering have been widely documented, no study has yet objectively determined alcohol's effects on prospective memory (PM)--remembering to do something in the future. OBJECTIVES: With this aim, the present study determined the acute effects of alcohol upon PM using a laboratory measure that simulates the PM tasks in everyday life--'Virtual Week'--both (a) in its standard form with regular, irregular, event-based and time-based PM tasks; and (b) an adapted version which enabled exploration of how future event simulation at encoding impacted upon subsequent PM. METHODS:Forty healthy volunteers were administered 0.6 g/kg ethanol or a matched placebo in a double-blind fashion and completed the two versions of Virtual Week along with prose recall (to tap retrospective memory) and an executive function task. RESULTS: Alcohol acutely produced global impairments across all (regular, irregular, event-based and time-based) PM tasks. It also produced impairments of episodic memory which positively correlated with PM performance of irregular tasks. Future-event simulation tended to enhance PM in the placebo but not in the alcohol group. CONCLUSIONS: These findings on an objective measure of PM suggest that 4-5 units of alcohol will compromise PM abilities in everyday life.
RCT Entities:
RATIONALE: Whilst the deleterious effects of alcohol on retrospective remembering have been widely documented, no study has yet objectively determined alcohol's effects on prospective memory (PM)--remembering to do something in the future. OBJECTIVES: With this aim, the present study determined the acute effects of alcohol upon PM using a laboratory measure that simulates the PM tasks in everyday life--'Virtual Week'--both (a) in its standard form with regular, irregular, event-based and time-based PM tasks; and (b) an adapted version which enabled exploration of how future event simulation at encoding impacted upon subsequent PM. METHODS: Forty healthy volunteers were administered 0.6 g/kg ethanol or a matched placebo in a double-blind fashion and completed the two versions of Virtual Week along with prose recall (to tap retrospective memory) and an executive function task. RESULTS:Alcohol acutely produced global impairments across all (regular, irregular, event-based and time-based) PM tasks. It also produced impairments of episodic memory which positively correlated with PM performance of irregular tasks. Future-event simulation tended to enhance PM in the placebo but not in the alcohol group. CONCLUSIONS: These findings on an objective measure of PM suggest that 4-5 units of alcohol will compromise PM abilities in everyday life.
Authors: Theadora Paraskevaides; Celia J A Morgan; Julie R Leitz; James A Bisby; Peter G Rendell; H Valerie Curran Journal: Psychopharmacology (Berl) Date: 2009-12-05 Impact factor: 4.530
Authors: Ahmed A Moustafa; Alejandro N Morris; Jean Louis Nandrino; Błażej Misiak; Monika Szewczuk-Bogusławska; Dorota Frydecka; Mohamad El Haj Journal: Exp Brain Res Date: 2018-08-11 Impact factor: 1.972