Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Aug;36(8):886-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2011.03.012. Epub 2011 Mar 25.

Acute alcohol effects on narrative recall and contextual memory: an examination of fragmentary blackouts

Reagan R Wetherill  1 , Kim Fromme
Affiliations

Acute alcohol effects on narrative recall and contextual memory: an examination of fragmentary blackouts

Reagan R Wetherill et al. Addict Behav. 2011 Aug.

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of alcohol consumption on narrative recall and contextual memory among individuals with and without a history of fragmentary blackouts in an attempt to better understand why some individuals experience alcohol-induced memory impairments whereas others do not, even at comparable blood alcohol concentrations (BACs). Standardized beverage (alcohol and no alcohol) administration procedures and neuropsychological assessments measured narrative recall and context memory performance before and after alcohol consumption in individuals with (n=44) and without (n=44) a history of fragmentary blackouts. Findings indicate that acute alcohol intoxication led to impairments in free recall, but not next-day cued recall. Further, participants showed similar memory performance when sober, but individuals who consumed alcohol and had a positive history of fragmentary blackouts showed greater contextual memory impairments than those who had not previously experienced a fragmentary blackout. Thus, it appears that some individuals may have an inherent vulnerability to alcohol-induced memory impairments due to alcohol's effects on contextual memory processes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Performances on Recall of Narrative Details After Beverage Challenge Notes. FB+ = Fragmentary blackout history positive; FB− = Fragmentary blackout history negative; Alc = Alcohol session; No Alc = No alcohol session.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Collins RL, Parks GA, Marlatt GA. Social determinants of alcohol consumption: the effects of social interaction and model status on the self-administration of alcohol. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 1985;53:189–200. - PubMed
    1. Corbin WR, Vaughn EL, Fromme K. Ethnic differences and the closing of the sex gap in alcohol use among college-bound students. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 2008;22:240–248. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dobbins IG, Foley H, Schacter DL, Wagner AD. Executive control during episodic retrieval: Multiple prefrontal processes subserve source memory. Neuron. 2002;35:989–996. - PubMed
    1. Goodwin DW, Crane JB, Guze SB. Alcoholic blackouts : A review and clinical study of 100 alcoholics. American Journal of Psychiatry. 1969;126:191–198. - PubMed
    1. Habib R, Nyberg L. Neural correlates of availability and accessibility in memory. Cerebral Cortex. 2008;18:1720–1726. - PubMed

Publication types