Binge-drinking and cognition

Binge drinking is defined as drinking five (four if you are a woman) or more standard alcoholic drinks within a two-hour interval. Researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain studied the effects of binge drinking on cognition in 95 first-year university students. They found that the students who engaged in binge drinking had problems with their visual working memory and had to pay more attention in a task designed to measure this than the other students. The binge-drinking students also had more trouble distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant stimuli. Although only 12.2% of Spanish university students are thought to be binge drinkers it is estimated that 40% of U.S. students are.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090811161259.htm