越吃越健忘？－嚼食檳榔對視-空間短期記憶與語音短期記憶的影響

檳榔是一種對人體有害的致癌物質，但檳榔的嚼食在亞洲地區仍非常常見，台灣地區估計約有195萬的成年人在嚼食檳榔。許多研究發現長期使用成癮物質會使大腦改變並損害短期記憶系統，且隨著依賴性越高，對短期記憶系統的損害也越大。本研究探討習慣嚼食檳榔者的短期記憶是否會隨著對檳榔的依賴性上升而有更嚴重的損害。我們要求三組參與者(高依賴組、低依賴組及從未嚼食組)完成三個短期記憶作業(方格廣度作業、物體廣度作業及數字廣度作業)，分別評估空間短期記憶、視覺短期記憶及口語短期記憶。研究結果發現，在方格廣度作業中，對檳榔的依賴性之主要效果達顯著，其中高檳榔依賴組的正確率顯著低於低檳榔依賴組與從未嚼食檳榔組。在物體廣度作業及數字廣度作業中，對檳榔的依賴性之主要效果皆未達顯著。因此，本研究的結果說明，長期嚼食檳榔會選擇性地對空間短期記憶造成損害。

Although betel nut is a harmful carcinogen, betel nut chewing is still very common in Asia. There are about 1.95 million adults chewing betel in Taiwan. In this study, we aimed to examine whether habitual chewers’ short-term memory (STM) declined as the betel nut dependence increased. Three groups of participants (high dependence, low dependence, and non-chewer control) were asked to complete three tasks (matrix span task, object span task, and digit span task) that assess different aspects of STM (visuo-spatial and verbal). The results found that, the main effect of dependence of betel nut in matrix span task, in which accuracy of high dependence group significantly lower than the low dependent group and non-chewer control group. In the object and digit span task, the main effect of the dependence were not significant difference. Therefore, the results of this study shows that chronic betel nut chewing can selectively damage the spatial short-term memory.