Fizzy drinks, the scourge of healthy diet campaigners, can improve your memory, according to experts today. 

    Consuming the equivalent of two cans of soft drink can boost memory retention by a fifth and combat dementia in older people, found neuroscientists from Glasgow Caledonian University. 

    Psychology lecturer Dr Leigh Riby, who led the research, said people studying for exams could benefit from increasing the amount of sugar in their diet. 

    He focused on an area of the brain known as the hippocampus, which creates new memories but declines with the onset of dementia. 

    Dr Riby used a series of memory tests and brain-imaging techniques to assess how volunteers responded after guzzling sugary drinks. 　 

    He found the hippocampus lit up with activity after participants had a sweetened drink and they were able to recall 17 per cent more than without a drink. 

    He said: "It is widely accepted that when humans face a stressful situation they experience a natural rise in glucose in the body, particularly in the hippocampus. 

    "They also tend to remember these dangerous or scary occurrences more clearly than other memories. 

    "This glucose-memory system has evolved to help humans survive. Unfortunately, it is compromised in old age." ( to be continued)

    參考譯文：

    英國專家日前表示，碳酸飲料雖然備受健康飲食提倡者指責，但其實它具有改善人們記憶力的功效。 

    據英國《每日郵報》1月15日報道，英國格拉斯哥喀里多尼亞大學（Glasgow Caledonian University）的神經學家們發現，每天喝下約兩罐碳酸飲料就能使記憶力提高五分之一。心理學講師利-萊比博士是此項研究的負責人。他說，飲食中含的糖份大，能夠給那些為應試而苦讀的人帶去好處；喝碳酸飲料同時還有助于預防老年癡呆癥的發生。 

    萊比等人的研究重點是一個名為海馬狀突起（hippocampus）的腦部區域。海馬狀突起主要由灰白質構成，在泛記過程中起主要作用。海馬狀突起可以產生新的記憶，但是當癡呆癥發作時，其功能就會受到影響并減退。 

    萊比博士使用一系列的記憶力測驗和腦部成像技術來評估志愿者喝下含糖飲料后，其腦部會做何反應。他發現，當志愿者們喝下甜飲料后，其海馬狀突起活性增強，與沒喝飲料時相比，他們能多記住17％的東西。 

    對此，萊比博士表示：“當人們面對一種很大的壓力時，其體內（特別是在海馬狀突起內）的葡萄糖量就會自然增加。而且他們還趨向于更清楚地記住那些危險的或是使人驚慌的事情。”“這種葡萄糖記憶力系統不斷進化發展，以有助于人們的生存。”