Lets be honest here, have you ever blacked out while drinking?
Well, lets just say your not alone. According to a study in Australia, 39 percent of women and 52 percent of men black out every year. But then again, the people in the study could drink legally and are therefore less influenced by binge drinking habits of underage drinkers.
High School and College drinking habits are arguably as abusive of the substance as those of hardcore alcoholics. All the drinking games and rituals associated with underage drinking are specifically designed to encourage teens to get drunk as quickly as possible.
Let me start by defining the term Blackout. A Blackout is a type of amnesia caused by the intake of excessive amounts of Alcohol. More specifically, a high Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) can hinder the brain in the process of transferring short term memories into long term memories.
Research has shown that there are two types of blackouts.
- Fragmentary or Partial Blackout
- Fragmentary Blackouts are the most common form of drunken amnesia. This type of blackout is characterized by an ability to recall only certain events or situations during the the period of intoxication. The blackout might not be apparent to the person until they are later made aware of events or situations they were involved in that they do not remember. At times, identifying a person who is partially blacked out can be difficult as the person may still be coherent and holding conversation or even performing challenging tasks. The blackout may not become apparent until the next morning when the "gaps" in memory are discovered.
- Fragmentary Blackouts are the most common form of drunken amnesia. This type of blackout is characterized by an ability to recall only certain events or situations during the the period of intoxication. The blackout might not be apparent to the person until they are later made aware of events or situations they were involved in that they do not remember. At times, identifying a person who is partially blacked out can be difficult as the person may still be coherent and holding conversation or even performing challenging tasks. The blackout may not become apparent until the next morning when the "gaps" in memory are discovered.
- Complete or En Bloc Blackouts
- En Bloc Blackouts are less common and more dangerous than fragmentary ones. These are characterized by an inability to later recall any memories from the intoxicated period. A person Completely blacked out is usually able to easily remember everything that has happened within the past 2-5 minutes, however, anything beyond that was never committed to long term memory. Like fragmentary blackouts, Complete blackouts can sometimes be hard to identify as the person may be involved in conversation, behaving as any fairly intoxicated person might. Often, however, a complete blackout is largely apparent to others as the person may be acting out of control or very unlike their sober selves. En bloc blackouts usually are realized the next morning as the period of intoxication usually does not end before the person falls asleep.
Blackouts occur most frequently when alcohol is consumed rapidly and excessively. In other words, rapid escalation of ones BAC is the usual mandate for any kind of blackout. The consumption of alcohol affects the way the brain processes information in many ways. First the alcohol affects the Prosencephalon or the forebrain. The forebrain controls motor skills and coordination as well as decision making. Soon after ones motor coordination and decision making abilities are impaired, the alcohol begins to affect the mid brain and the hippocampus. This is where memory formation is disrupted. As a drinker consumes more and more alcohol, the hippocampus is less and less active. It has been shown that at high BAC levels, hippocampal cell activity almost completely ceases. So next time you're getting tanked, think about your hippocampus; who knows maybe you'll remember what you did that night!
FYI:
- Alcohol has been shown to particularly effect a person's ability to form explicit memories like facts (ie names, phone numbers, etc) and events. This is where your hippocampus comes in.
- Research has shown that blacking out could be influenced by genetic factors. I guess I'll have to warn my kids when the time comes...
- The worlds oldest known recipe is for beer. Awesome!
- A BAC of .35 is equivalent to a surgical anesthetic.
- “The Star Spangled Banner,” was written to the tune of a drinking song.
- The first recruiting station of the U.S. Marines was a bar.
- It is illegal to feed alcohol to Moose in Alaska and fish in Ohio.
A Paper on Alcohol's effects on the brain
Alcohol's effects at different BAC levels
Alcoholism
fuckin hippocampus
ReplyDelete