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April 23, 2011

Maybe Just Drunk Enough to Remember

By JOHN ELIGON

Drunken recollections, especially in rape trials, rarely play well to jurors. In a society that can be quick to turn a skeptical eye toward women who say they were raped she was scantily dressed, shes promiscuous, shes just angry at him prosecutors of sex crimes say one of their biggest obstacles in the courtroom is alcohol. A rape trial in Manhattan is the latest example. The accuser, who completed her testimony Monday, admitted that she was so drunk on the night in question that she could not remember most of what happened, even the cab ride home. Yet she provided a vivid description of the moment she said she was raped by the police officer who escorted her up to her apartment. Can someone be that drunk, yet remember specific details of an event? According to scientists, its possible. But it is also possible that any memory of a drunken episode is colored by suggestion or outside information. When drunk, people sometimes pass out; they become unconscious. Or they could black out a condition in which theyre conscious but not storing memories. Blackouts tend to start at blood alcohol levels of at least 0.15 percent, about twice the legal limit for driving, especially when a person hits that level quickly. When alcohol floods the hippocampus a brain region that records our lives as they unfold neurons stop talking to each other and capturing memories, said Aaron White, a researcher with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. When the hippocampus is off, no matter how hard one tries, a memory will not be recalled because it will not have been recorded in the first place, Dr. White said. Yet a person in that condition can still be conscious and interacting with people, talking, driving a car, having sex, engaging in all kinds of complex behavior, said Kim Fromme, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has researched alcoholinduced blackouts.

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Maybe Just Drunk Enough to Remember - NYTimes.com

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The woman who testified last week seemed to be experiencing what researchers call a fragmentary blackout, a phenomenon well recognized in neuropsychology. In those cases, the neurons tend to flicker, allowing the brain to capture scenes here and there, according to Dr. White. But the brain does not necessarily favor one event over another. In other words, its not true that after a drunken night we tend to recall the exceptional over the mundane. There does not appear to be an association between the emotional salience of an event and whether it will be recorded, Dr. White said. During a blackout, he added, a person is just as likely to remember brushing their teeth as being assaulted. The recollection of an incident during a drunken blackout can also be influenced. An individual cant remember something, but they keep being asked: What about this? What about that? Dr. Fromme said. You have to be cautious about memories becoming contaminated by peoples questioning. People can then take that information youve given them and create a false memory thats not actually true. Some research suggests, however, that traumatic memories, when they are captured, can stick with more detail than even something that is pleasant. A person may, for instance, remember clearly how the food at his or her wedding tasted. Yet if someone were to force food down that persons mouth, that would produce a more vivid memory, said David Lisak, a psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. The brain is really affected by the neurochemicals that are circulating in it during traumatic events, he said. The memories tend to be sensory fragments, vivid smells, vivid images, vivid physical sensations, body sensations. Scientists still do not know whether some people are predisposed to blackouts. One study found that people with a history of blackouts may experience them at a blood alcohol level of 0.08 percent. Researchers performed memory tests on people while they were sober, and again while they were at 0.08 percent. Using magnetic-resonance imaging, the researchers found that individuals who were having blackouts had less activity in the frontal areas associated with memory, decision making and attention, said Reagan Wetherill, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at San Diegos School of Medicine who conducted the research. Researchers remain unclear about exactly which cues tend to help people recall memory, and why.

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There may be one seemingly radical, but still unproven, method for jogging the memories of people who have blacked out: get them drunk again. Studies of a theory called state-dependent learning have suggested that some people who witnessed an event while they were drunk were better able to recall the details later when they were brought back to the same level of drunkenness, said Seema L. Clifasefi, a research scientist at the University of Washingtons Addictive Behaviors Research Center. In essence, the state of being intoxicated may serve as an internal memory cue and allow access to information that may not be readily available under a sober state, she wrote in an e-mail. Beyond the fact that the science is not yet solid, Dr. Clifasefi acknowledged that applying this theory in court might be a stretch. Would getting people intoxicated to recall details of an event fly with our current legal system or is it really feasible? she wrote. Probably not!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/weekinreview/24eligon.html?ref=health&pagewa... 25/4/2011