Unless you are teetotal, we've all had a morning after when we are forced to wonder why on earth we did that hugely embarrassing thing while drunk the previous night.
Whether it's as simple as an embarrassing text message sent, a drunkenconfession of love or something a little bit more bizarre, it's usually the sort of thing we wouldn't do while sober.
But a series of detailed brain scans has now revealed that alcohol doesn't cause us to behave badly, it just stops us from caring about embarrassing ourselves.
Research from a team at the University of Missouri has shown that drunken people are still aware they're making a mistake, but the alcohol reduces brain signals telling us to worry.
Professor Bruce Bartholow, who led the study, said: "When we make mistakes, activity in a part of the brain responsible for monitoring behavior increases. This sends an alarm signal to other parts of the brain indicating that something went wrong. Our study shows that alcohol doesn't reduce your awareness of mistakes - it reduces how much you care about making those mistakes.
During the study, Prof Bartholow's team of psychologists measured the brain activity of people aged between 21 and 35 as they completed a tricky computer task.
One third of them were given alcoholic drinks, while the rest were given no alcohol.
In addition to monitoring their brain activity, the researchers also measured changes in participants' mood, their accuracy in the computer task and their perceived accuracy.
The findings showed the brain's "alarm signal" in response to errors was much less pronounced in those who had drunk alcohol.
However, they were no less likely to realize when they had made a mistake - they just didn't care as much.
"In certain circumstances reducing the brain's alarm signal could be seen as a good thing, because some people, like those with anxiety disorders, are hyper-sensitive to things going wrong. In some people, a small amount of alcohol can take the edge off those anxious feelings," added Prof Bartholow.


据英国《每日邮报》9月2日报道，除非滴酒不沾，不然我们每个人都会碰到这样的时候，即在酒醒后拼命想知道前一天晚上为什么要做那些令人尴尬的事情。

不管是酒醉后发出的一条尴尬短信，还是表白，抑或是更疯狂的事，这些都是我们在清醒的时候不敢做的。


目前，一系列的脑部详细扫描显示，酒精并不会让人举止反常，它只是让人忘记了尴尬。

密苏里大学团队的研究表明，喝醉的人依然知道他们在犯错，但酒精使他们担心这种（过失）的信号减少了。


负责该研究的布鲁斯•巴塞洛说："当我们做错事时，负责监控我们行为的大脑区域的活动就会增加。而这种活动能向大脑的其他区域发出警报，提醒有错误出现。我们的研究表明，酒精并非减少了人对错误的觉察力，而是让人不再关心错误造成的影响。"


在研究过程中，巴塞洛教授领导的心理学家团队对21到35岁之间的人在完成一项棘手计算机任务时的大脑活动进行了测评。

研究人员让1/3的人喝酒，剩下的人则没有喝酒。

除了监控他们的大脑活动，研究者们还测评了被测者的情绪变化、执行计算机任务和感知的精确度。


结果发现，摄入酒精的人的大脑对于错误的警报信号明显减弱。

尽管如此，他们并不是不知道自己犯了错，只是他们不在意。


"在某些情况下，减少大脑的警报信号是件好事，比如那些患有焦虑症的人，他们对错误会异常敏感。对这些人来说，少量的酒精有助于其减少焦躁情绪，" 巴塞洛教授补充说。

• previous [´pri:viəs] a.先，前，以前的 (初中英语单词)
• drunken [´drʌŋkən] a.喝醉的；常醉的 (初中英语单词)
• series [´siəri:z] n.连续；系列；丛书 (初中英语单词)
• alcohol [´ælkəhɔl] n.酒精；醇 (初中英语单词)
• behave [bi´heiv] v.举止；表现；举止端正 (初中英语单词)
• responsible [ri´spɔnsəbəl] a.尽责的；责任重大的 (初中英语单词)
• computer [kəm´pju:tə] n.计算机；电子计算器 (初中英语单词)
• addition [ə´diʃən] n.加；加法；附加物 (初中英语单词)
• anxiety [æŋ´zaiəti] n.挂念；渴望；焦虑的事 (初中英语单词)
• amount [ə´maunt] n.总数；数量 v.合计 (初中英语单词)
• anxious [´æŋkʃəs] a.担忧的；渴望的 (初中英语单词)
• confession [kən´feʃən] n.招供；认错；交待 (高中英语单词)
• behavior [bi´heiviə] n.举止，行为 (高中英语单词)
• accuracy [´ækjurəsi] n.准确(性)；精密度 (高中英语单词)
• response [ri´spɔns] n.回答；响应 (高中英语单词)
• pronounced [prə´naunst] a.发出音的；显著的 (高中英语单词)
• alcoholic [,ælkə´hɔlik] a.酒精的 (英语四级单词)