<P> Short - term memory is commonly tested with visual tasks . Short - term memory, especially for non-verbal and spatial material, are impaired by intoxication . Alcohol decreases iconic memory (a type of visual short - term memory). With BACs between 80--84 mg / dl, more intrusion errors occur in a delayed recall task compared to a control group . Intrusion errors, which represent reflective cognitive functioning, occur when irrelevant information is produced . Alcoholics have less control of inhibiting intrusions . Acute alcohol intoxication in social drinkers caused more intrusion errors in delayed recall tasks than in immediate free recall tasks . Acute alcohol intoxication increases susceptibility to interference, which allows for more intrusion errors when there is a short delay . Free recall (given list of words then asked to recall list) is significantly lower and therefore impaired by alcohol intoxication . Encoding deficits were found in verbal free recall and recognition tasks under the influence of alcohol . A discrimination task found significant alcohol - related impairments in depth perception and in visual short - term memory . State - dependent learning and relearning studies in male heavy drinkers demonstrate that the condition of intoxication while learning and sobriety when tested caused a performance deficit in free recall tasks . These findings are supportive of alcohol - induced storage deficits (not retrieval deficits). The effects of acute alcohol consumption on visual short - term memory, stereoscopic depth perception, and attention were studied . A 33% alcohol condition showed significant impairments in depth perception and in visual short - term memory (assessed by the vernier discrimination task). </P> <P> Working memory allows one to keep things in mind while simultaneously performing complex tasks . It involves a system for the temporary storage and manipulation of information, forming a crucial link between perception and controlled action . Evidence suggests that working memory involves three components: the central executive which controls attention, the visuo - spatial sketchpad which holds and manipulates spatial information, and the phonological loop which performs a similar function for auditory and speech - based information . </P> <P> Alcohol consumption has substantial, measurable effects on working memory, though these effects vary greatly between individual responses . Little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie these individual differences . It is also found that alcohol impairs working memory by affecting mnemonic strategies and executive processes rather than by shrinking the basic holding capacity of working memory . Isolated acute - moderate levels of alcohol intoxication do not profoundly physically alter the structures which are critical for working memory function, such as the frontal cortex, parietal cortex, anterior cingulate, and parts of the basal ganglia . One finding regarding the effects of alcohol on working memory points out that alcohol reduces working memory only in individuals with a high baseline working memory capacity, which suggests that alcohol might not uniformly affect working memory in different individuals . Alcohol appears to impair the capacity of working memory to modulate response inhibition . Alcohol disinhibits behaviour, but only in individuals with a low baseline working memory capacity . An interesting finding is that incentive to perform well with working memory measurement tasks while under the influence of alcohol' does in fact have some effect on working memory, in that it boosts scores in rate of mental scanning and reaction time to stimulus, but did not reduce number of errors compared to subjects with no incentive to perform well . Even acute alcohol intoxication (a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 - 0.09%) produces a substantial impairment of working memory processes that require mnemonic rehearsal strategies . Alcohol is less likely to impair a working memory task that does not rely on memory rehearsal or associated mnemonic strategies . Because of this, working memory is very susceptible to falter when a person is participating in tasks involving retention concerning auditory and visual sequences . A real world and interesting example of this is failure of guitarists or other musicians performing concerts to cue in on auditory patterns and make it known that their performance is hindered by intoxication, whereas professional basketball (a less sequence - heavy activity for working memory) standout Ron Artest recently admitted in an interview with Sporting News to drinking heavily during half - time in the early days of his career and it having little if any recognizable effect on his working memory . His former coach Fran Fraschilla has gone on record saying: </P> <P> "It's a surprise because every day at practice, he came out in a mood to play . He came out in a basketball rage . He was fully committed; he wanted to let our upperclassmen know that he was the alpha male . It never came up that he had any sort of a problem with alcohol . This is the first I've heard of it ." </P>

Which parts of the brain when impaired by alcohol play in important role in memory