So, a few years ago, when I had stage fright (actually I was more of afraid of havin stage fright), I borrowed some from someone with high blood pressure).  I took  it before an open mic, and yeah, it works.   Ever since then I have wondered about its effect on brain and body.  Besides dampening the “flight or fight” syndrome of keeping our adreneline in check I always suspected a negative side effects memory and cognitive abilities (like being able to focus).   This from my own experiences and observance of others.   Its very slight, not obvious, but has always been a suspicion.  So today, (I finally remembered ;-) to google it out.   More than I suspected there is a ton of studies that identify the symptoms and have initial results validating these suspicions.

Just google it:

http://www.google.com/search?q=+memory+loss+beta+blocker