Individual Paper(s)
Alcohol consumption, cognitive performance & mood: a web based study
D.O. Kennedy <[email]>
Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Northumbria University
P Jackson <[email]>
Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Northumbria University
C.F. Haskell <[email]>
Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Northumbria University
B Tiplady <[email]>
Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Northumbria University; Penscreen.com
T Buchanan <[email]>
University of Westminster
A.B. Scholey <[email]>
Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Northumbria University
Background: Recent studies in middle-aged and older cohorts suggest that regular consumers of low to moderate levels of alcohol exhibit better cognitive performance than non-consumers. This has been attributed to either the protective effects of alcohol over the lifetime, or the inclusion in the non-consumers group of individuals that have given up alcohol consumption due to poor health. The current study explored the relationship between self-reported alcohol consumption and cognitive performance and mood in a cohort composed largely of younger individuals.
Methods: Data was collected via a purpose designed web-site comprising a 15 minute cognitive battery, self-reported mood and memory measures, and demographic and ‘psychoactives’ consumption data. 1807 participants completed the web-site. Following the application of exclusion criteria, which included the recent consumption of illicit drugs, alcohol, and prescribed psychoactive medications, 1170 sets of data were analysed. Data was grouped into ‘zero’, ‘low’ (up to 10 units) and ‘moderate’ (up to 20 units) normal weekly alcohol consumption and analysed by ANCOVA incorporating age, education, exercise, tobacco and recreational drug consumption as co-variates. An identical secondary analysis was undertaken on the 665 evaluable data-sets obtained from participants aged 16 to 26 years.
Results: In comparison to the ‘zero’ group, both ‘low’ and ‘moderate’ alcohol groups performed better in terms of speed and/or accuracy on the ‘Serial 7s’, ‘Word Recognition’ and ‘Sentence Verification’ tasks. In contrast to this, both the ‘moderate’ and ‘low’ groups reported decrements in mood. These effects were seen across self-ratings of ‘headache’, ‘overall-mood’, ‘alertness’, and ‘fatigue’. The general pattern of effects was the same for the younger sub-set of participants.
Conclusions: Low to moderate alcohol consumption is associated with improved cognitive performance, but decrements in subjective mood. Given the nature of the samples analysed, it seems unlikely that the effects evinced are as a consequence of either a long-term protective effect of alcohol, or are as a consequence of unidentified health factors.
