Table 3.

Exemplar neurobehavioral studies.

Reference	Outcome measures	Non-drinker stratificationa	Sex-stratified risk analysisb	Dose ranges and definitions	Comments
Reas, Laughlin, Kritz-Silverstein, Barrett-Connor, and McEvoy (2016)	Cognitive function	Yes	No	<14g/<28g/day for women/men; 14/28 to <42/<56g/day; >42/>56g/dayc	Observed positive linear relationships between executive function and both amount and frequency of consumption, but U-shaped functions for memory, with the greatest advantages among moderate and infrequent (1–2 days/week) drinkers
Herring and Paulson (2018)	Cognitive function; Cognitive decline	No	No	14–196g/week	Moderate drinking significantly associated with better cognitive performance across a variety of tasks/domains, but did not have a significant effect on performance decline
Hogenkamp et al. (2014)	Cognitive function; Cognitive decline	No	Male sample	12 g/day; 24g/day; ≥36g/day	Moderate consumption associated with performance advantage in set-shifting/executive function task, but not on rates of change in performance over 7-year period
Neafsey and Collins (2011)	Dementia; Cognitive decline (Meta-analysis)	Mixed	Mixed	“Light to moderate” (≤1/≤2 drinks/day for women/men); “Heavy” (>3–4 drinks/day)d	Average RR for cognitive risk (dementia/impairment) for moderate drinking was 0.77. Benefit applied to all forms of dementia/impairment, but not rate of cognitive decline
Peters et al. (2008)	Dementia; Cognitive decline (Meta-analysis)	No	No	Specific categories not established	Conclude light-to-moderate drinking may be protective against dementia (RR: 0.63) and Alzheimer’s (RR: 0.57) but not vascular dementia or cognitive decline
Downer et al. (2015)	Episodic memory; Hippocampal volume	No	No	“Light” (1–6 drinks/week); “Moderate” (7–14/week); “heavy” (15–34/week)d	Moderate drinking during late life associated with larger hippocampal volumes; Light, but not moderate consumption associated with improvements in episodic memory which were accounted for by hippocampal volume
Topiwala et al. (2017)	Cognitive decline; Hippocampal volume	No	Yes	“Light” (8–56 g/week) “Moderate” (56–112/168 g/week for women/men) “Unsafe” (112/168 +/week)	112–168g/week associated with over three times the odds for hippocampal atrophy. No associations between drinking and cognitive decline
McEvoy et al. (2018)	White matter integrity	Yes	Male Sample	“Very Light” (1–3 drinks/2 weeks); “Light” (4–8/2 weeks); “Moderate” (9–28/2 weeks); “Heavier” (>28/2 weeks)d	U-shaped dose-response function detected for alcohol and fractional anisotropy (FA) measures across multiple tracts, with FA increases peaking at moderate levels
Wardzala et al. (2018)	Cognitive decline	No	Yes	“Rare/never” (<14g/week); “Moderate” (<98/196 g/week. for women/men); “Heavy” (>98/196 g/week)	Analyzed rates of decline across a battery of neuropsychological tests and global measures of impairment; Sex-stratified analyses revealed reduced rates of memory decline in moderate drinking women, but measures of global impairment in men

^aReflects whether lifetime abstainers were employed as a reference group. “Mixed” indicates this separation occurred in some, but not all analyses.

^bReflects whether dose-response risk functions were individuated for men and women.

^c1.25oz liquor (~12g alcohol) used to define “1 drink”; conversion to 14g/drink may have overestimated consumption.

^dInsufficient information to convert “drinks” to grams.