Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T10:08:04.013Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Self-rated prospective memory and central executive deficits in excessive alcohol users

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Thomas Heffernan ,
Jonathon Ling  and
Janice Bartholomew
Thomas Heffernan
Affiliation:
Division of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 8ST, England
Jonathon Ling
Affiliation:
Psychology Section, University of Teeside, Middlesbrough
Janice Bartholomew
Affiliation:
Division of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 8ST, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives: This study assessed self-reported prospective memory and related central executive processes in a group of excessive alcohol users and non-users. The aim was to assess whether excessive alcohol use is associated with impairments in these two sets of memory processes.

Methods: Eighty participants from the North-East of England were tested. Of these, 40 were excessive alcohol users (using above the recommended weekly ‘safe’ dose of alcohol) and 40 were low-dose/non-users. Each participant was assessed using self-reports of prospective memory (PM) – measured using the Prospective Memory Questionnaire (PMQ) and central executive (CE) processes – measured using the Dysexecutive Questionnaire (DEX). Other drug use, age and strategy use were incorporated into the study as controls.

Results: After controlling for other drug use, age, and strategy use, excessive alcohol users reported global impairments in everyday prospective memory and in their central executive processes, when compared to a low-dose/no-alcohol control group.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that excessive alcohol use has a detrimental impact upon everyday memory – a relatively unexplored area of research. PM and CE deficits should be added to the growing list of neuropsychological sequelae associated with chronic excessive alcohol use.

Keywords

AlcoholProspective memoryPMQCentral executiveDEXMemory impairment
Type
Brief reports
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , December 2004 , pp. 122 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Institute of Alcohol Consumption. UK alcohol consumption. www.eurocare.org/profiles/uk/ukconsumption.htm Downloaded 07 16, 2001.Google Scholar
2.Parsons, OA, Nixon, SJ. Neurobehavioural sequelae of alcoholism. Neurologic Clin 1993; 11: 205–218.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3.Sher, KJ, Martin, ED, Wood, PK, Rutledge, PC. Alcohol use disorders and neuropsychological functioning in first-year undergraduates. Exp Clin Psychopharmacol 1997; 5: 304–315.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4.Bachara, A, Dolan, S, Denburg, N, Hindes, A, Anderson, SW, Nathan, PE. Decision-making deficits, linked to dysfunctional ventromedial prefrontal cortex, revealed in alcohol and stimulant abusers. Neuropsychologia 2001; 39: 376–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Selby, MJ, Azrin, RL. Neuropsychological functioning in drug abusers. Drug Alcohol Depend 1998; 50: 39–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6.Ambrose, ML, Bowden, SC, Whelan, G. Working memory impairments in alcohol-dependent participants without clinical amnesia. Alcoholism: Clin Exp Res 2001; 25: 185–191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7.Wendt, PE, Risberg, J. Ethanol reduces cCFB activation of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during a verbal fluency task. Brain Lang 2001; 77: 197–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Brandimonte, M, Einstein, GO, McDaniel, MA. Prospective Memory: Theory and applications. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996.Google Scholar
9.Ellis, J, Kvavilashvili, L, Milne, A. Experimental tests of prospective remembering: the influence of cue-event frequency on performance. Br J Psychol 1999; 90: 9–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10.Heffernan, TM, Moss, M, Ling, J. Subjective ratings of prospective memory in chronic heavy alcohol users. Alcohol Alcohol 2002; 37: 269–271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11.Ling, J, Heffernan, TM, Buchanan, T, Rodgers, J, Scholey, AB, Parrott, AC. Effects of Alcohol on Subjective Ratings of Prospective and Everyday Memory Deficits. Alcoholism: Clin Exp Res 2003; 27(6): 1–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12.Hannon, Ret al.Effects of brain injury and age on prospective memory self-rating and performance. Rehab Psychol 1995; 40: 289–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13.Kopp, UA, Thone, AIT. Role of executive functions and memory processes in delayed intention after head injury. Paper presented at the 1st International Conference on Prospective Memory 2000.Google Scholar
14.Wilson, BA, Alderman, N, Burgess, PW, Emslie, H, Evans, J. Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome. UK: Thames Valley Test Company, 1996.Google Scholar
15.Kril, JJ, Halliday, GM. Brain shrinkage in alcoholics: a decade on and what have we learned? Prog Neurobiol 1998; 58: 381–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Garcia-Moreno, LMet al.Hippocampal AgNOR activity after chronic alcohol consumption and alcohol deprivation in rats. Physiol Behav 2001; 72: 115–221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
17.McDaniel, MA, Glisky, EL, Guynn, MJ, Rotherieauxm, BC. Prospective memory: a neuropsychological study. Neuropsychology 1999; 13: 103–110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
18.Okuda, Jet al.Participation of the prefrontal cortices in prospective memory: evidence from a PET study in humans. Neurosci Lett 1998; 253: 127–130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19.Shapiro, JK, Shapiro, LR, Russell, S, Alper, JS. A role of executive processes in prospective remembering. Brain Cogn 1998; 39: 1–3.Google Scholar
20.Hunter, A. Serotonergic involvement in learning and memory. Biochem Soc Trans 2000; 17: 79–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.Spoont, MR. Modulatory role of serotonin in neural information processing: implications for human psychopathology. Psychol Bull 1992; 112: 330–350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22.Huttenlocher, PR. Human cerebral cortex development. In: Johnson, MH. Brain development and cognition: A reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1993.Google Scholar