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IT'S SAINT PATRICK'S WEEKEND!!!!!! A time to celebrate the work of Saint Patrick who
converted the Irish from Paganism to Catholicism. In America, this means getting medievally
blackout ffffffffffwasted! Huh?
Howdy Irish and Irish-wannabes, Trace here for DNews with some drunk science. Now there's
drunk, and then there's BLACKOUT drunk. Those are the times when you're so bombed you literally
have no memory of anything you did or said. A whole chunk of time is just lost. Count
yourself lucky if this has never happened to you. But why does this happen at all?
First let's talk about how memories are made. Scientists aren't EXACTLY sure, but they THINK
it has to do with the hippocampus. On a normal day, the synapses of your brain communicate
with each other to build your experiences. It's a chemical process pulling in information
from your senses, experiences and feelings at the time all folded into the cells of your
grey matter. Your cells communicate with each other using a neurotransmitter chemical called
glutamate. Glutamate helps bridge the synaptic gap between brain cells so memories can be
stored and accessed. But alcohol is a toxin that affects the glutamate. See where I'm
going?
According to a study in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research functional
MRI scans of drunk students found our brains, once intoxicated, increase blood flow to the
parts that control attention and cognitive functioning as well as the parts that create
memory. As the blood becomes more and more saturated with alcohol, females will begin
to black out, and then males. Blackouts start at a blood alcohol level of around Point-One-Five.
During blackout, or a drug-induced brain dysfunction, the hippocampus stops writing memories. Basically,
our 20-30 seconds of short-term memory gets full and resets. You didn't FORGET, you weren't
even RECORDING, dude! You could ask a blackout drunk person about a story from their childhood,
but ask them what happened a few minutes ago -- and they would have no recollection. According
to Boston College, a blacked out person is basically a walking, talking unconscious person.
Sometimes blackouts let fragments of memories through, but they aren't all the senses, thoughts
and experiences -- instead they're just pieces. When we ask our friends, "What happened last
night" we are EXTREMELY vulnerable to suggestion... Those memories were never written down, but
since the brain is a glutton for context you're CREATING the memories from the stories your
friends are telling.
It might SEEM like a lot of people have blackout nights, but only 40-percent of college student
have EVER blacked out. If you DO experience them, you're more likely to fall back into
them if you drink heavily on a daily basis. Research from the 1940s found alcoholism and
blackouts were correlated, but there's no causation. Newer research says some people
are more perceptible based on body and brain chemistry, weight, sex, and so on. Anyone
can have a blackout if they drink too much, but if they happen too often, it can mess
up your brain chemistry and potentially cause long-term damage -- not to mention the bad
decisionmaking.
If you want to avoid blackouts, don't drink so fast! Your body can metabolize one drink
and hour -- so get your buzz on, but don't get craazy. Celebrate Saint Patrick's Day
responsibly. Sláinte, everyone!
What are you doing for the largest Irish-American holiday? Meeting up with other DNews fans
to talk science at the pub? Tell us below, and subscribe! Maybe you're drunk already!
If so, why not click the like button, you liked this right? Do you remember if you did?