The Canadian Press is reporting health research from a Spanish study has showing  that binge drinking can lead to memory loss.  This article, written by Lauren LaRose appeared on the Toronto Star health news website.  The study has also shown that binge drinking can also have negative effects on visual working memory processes and attention span.

“Binge drinking could lead to nursing more head troubles than a hangover – it could alter brain functioning and memory, a new study suggests.

Researchers conducted a study of first-year Spanish university students to look at the impact binge drinking had on their attention and visual working memory processes.

The study defined binge drinkers as males who drink five or more standard alcoholic drinks within a two-hour interval on one occasion. Women who drank four or more drinks under the same conditions were classified as binge drinkers.

A total of 95 students from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwest Spain ranging in age from 18 to 20 took part. Forty-two students – including 21 females – were classified as binge drinkers. The remaining 53 – including 26 females – were identified as “control” students – those who didn’t drink enough to raise concerns.

A technique known as event-related potential, or ERP, was used to examine the participants in the study, which is slated to be published in the November issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

An ERP is the electrophysiological brain response to internal or external stimuli. Researchers paid close attention to monitor the negative and positive waveforms in the brain that are components of ERPs. The waveforms are associated with attention and working memory processes and have been shown to be particularly sensitive to alcohol.

Researchers found healthy young university students – meaning those with no alcohol use disorder, drug use, alcohol dependence or associated psychiatric disorders – who engaged in binge drinking required more attentional effort to complete a given task. That said, the task was still executed correctly.
“These electrophysiological differences found suggest the need on the part of binge drinkers for greater attentional processing during the task in order to carry it out correctly,” corresponding author Alberto Crego wrote in an email to The Canadian Press.

The ERPs were recorded during a visual “identical pairs” continuous performance task. Abstract figures were randomly presented in the centre of a computer monitor placed 100 centimetres in front of the subject’s eyes.

Students were instructed to press a button when two consecutive identical stimuli appeared and not to respond in the other cases. That meant they had to maintain each figure present in their working memory and had to respond if the next figure was the same.

Crego said the differences observed in the study may reflect impairment in both attention and working memory processes.
“Despite adequate performance, if alcohol-induced disruption increases, then performance-related problems may emerge.”

What’s more, researchers write that it has been suggested that the adolescent brain is more sensitive to the “neurotoxic effects” of alcohol and binge drinking than the adult brain, especially structures of the brain that mature later on in development. But Crego notes that further research is needed to clarify the effects of binge drinking on working memory. Longitudinal studies are also needed to understand the evolution of the binge drinking pattern “and of associated neurofunctional and behavioural alterations,” he wrote.”

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Health news from Italian researchers has revealed that a new medicated eye drop could possibly cure the symptoms of glaucoma. Glaucoma is the build up of pressure, called intraocular pressure – inside the eye which causes damage to the optic nerve cells. In this article from the BBC website, the findings discuss this newly developed eyedrop and its potential.

“The study of rats and human patients found drops containing a nerve growth factor may stop these cells dying, and actually improve vision. It is reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It is estimated that 77m people have glaucoma around the world.  The build up of intraocular pressure can sometimes be controlled through other techniques. But once pressure has started to damage optic nerve cells, called retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), it has proved impossible to recover that lost function.

And often people with glaucoma do not seek expert help until the condition is already relatively advanced. The researchers, from the University of Rome, treated rats with symptoms of glaucoma with eye drops containing nerve growth factor. The animals who were given the eye drops showed decreased levels of RGC death compared with those who did not receive the treatment.

The researchers went on to test the drops in three human patients whose intraocular pressure had started to be controlled, but who still showed signs of progressive deterioration in their vision.  In two of the patients vision improved, while in the other it was stabilised. The improvements lasted up to 18 months after the eye drops were applied.

Nerve growth factor appears to trigger chemical changes within cells that prevent them from dying in response to damage.  It might also enable cells whose function had begun to be damaged to bounce back. And it might boost the capacity of healthy RGCs to form new connections within the optic nerve, to compensate for any damage that had already taken place.

However, nerve growth factor cannot rescue RGCs that have already died – in common with brain tissue, the optic nerve cannot regenerate. Lead researcher Dr Stefano Bonini said: “Although neuroprotection in glaucoma has already been attempted with several compounds, this is the first time that an improvement in visual function is observed in patients with advanced optic nerve damage.”

David Wright, chief executive of the International Glaucoma Association, warned against drawing firm conclusions from such a small study – but said the results were encouraging.  He said: “There have been many false dawns in the search for neuro-protective agents for the treatment of glaucoma and it is a feature of research on other compounds that early promise does not always translate into clinical effectiveness when larger studies are undertaken.”

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