No-brainer, But Moderation Key

Newcastle Herald

Tuesday July 17, 2007

WEIRD SCIENCE WITH EDDIE O'REILLY

THE bed is spinning, your head is throbbing and your mouth feels like the bottom of a bird cage.

Your joints ache and your eyes won't accept anything beyond dim light without jabbing hot spears of searing pain into the quivering grey sludge that was once your brain.

Cheer up, a bunch of Aussie scientists have issued a report saying alcohol may not be that bad for you.

Contrary to popular perception, Professor Perry Bartlett of the Queensland Brain Institute said it appeared that drinking moderate amounts of alcohol did not kill off brain cells.

The institute's scientists said they found that, although alcohol might affect a person's behaviour temporarily, it does not permanently damage the brain.

A recent conference held at the institute heard that a few glasses of wine a night could even have beneficial effects, including reducing the risk of dementia, stroke and heart disease.

It's not the first time moderate alcohol intake has been declared to have possible health benefits.

The emphasis here is on the word moderate the researchers were not advocating that long-term binge drinking was without potential health dangers.

One of those risks is memory loss, which seamlessly segues us into the second brain story of the week.

Researchers at the University of Colorado in the US believe they have discovered how the mind suppresses memories.

A group of subjects were shown a series of faces and associated pictures of traumatic events or objects.

After being shown the images a number of times the subjects were asked to try to deliberately remember or forget the negative associations.

When tested later, 53 per cent of those asked to forget could no longer remember which went with what, while 73 per cent of those asked to remember could still connect the face to the image.

Through it all the researchers monitored the brains in real time using functional magnetic research imaging, allowing them to identify which parts of the brain were active and which went dormant during the memory-suppressing process.

It's only in the early stages, but the researchers believe their work may eventually lead to better treatment for people suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.

A drug targeting certain parts of the brain could help sufferers from being stressed by recurring images of traumatic experiences.

© 2007 Newcastle Herald

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