blacking out alcohol brain damage 2 beer

Those who drink large amounts quickly, however, tend to experience memory impairment more often. In humans the amount of alcohol that triggers a blackout varies from person to person. We discovered the blood alcohol concentration must be dangerously high, about 300 milligrams per deciliter, corresponding to about 2.4 parts per thousand. In experiments on rodents my colleagues and I tested how much alcohol is needed for this to happen. Normally this mechanism, responsible for strengthening the synaptic transfer of information between neurons, is the basis of memory formation. This in turn slows the long-term potentiation of hippocampal synapses. Alcohol alters the activity of certain glutamate receptors, thereby boosting the production of specific steroid hormones. Specifically, it appears alcohol impairs the so-called long-term potentiation of synapses at the pyramidal cells in the hippocampus. It is clear that processes in the hippocampus-the area of brain involved in the formation, storage and retrieval of new memories-are disturbed. It is unlikely, however, that brain damage is behind acute blackouts. Indeed, long-standing alcohol abuse can damage nerve cells and permanently impact memory and learning. Researchers long assumed alcohol impairs memory because it kills brain cells. Neuroscientists do not fully understand how blackouts occur. That means you can’t remember a stretch of time because your brain was unable to record and store memories in the first place. In medical terms this memory loss is a form of temporary anterograde amnesia, a condition where the ability to form new memories is, for a limited time, impaired.

A 2015 survey of English teenagers who drank showed 30 percent of 15-year-olds and 75 percent of 19-year-olds suffered alcohol-induced blackouts. Scary-isn’t it? Unfortunately, alcohol-induced blackouts aren’t a rarity, either. The result can mean having vague or no memory of a time period ranging anywhere from a few minutes up to several hours.

One minute you’re enjoying a nice buzz, the next your brain stops recording events that are taking place.

Blacking out alcohol brain damage 2 beer