A new study shows that experiencing alcohol-related blackouts could alter the brain structure.
This may specifically affect areas linked to learning and memory.
How Alcohol-Related Blackouts Happen
Not all individuals who drink go through such blackouts despite heavy drinking. It also appears that women have a higher risk compared to men.
There could also be genetic factors at play that could affect the body's ability to break down the substance. This could result in an increased blackout risk after heavy drinking.
According to the American Addiction Centers, roughly 50% of individuals who drink alcohol have gone through alcohol-related blackouts at some point.
Postdoctoral neuropsychology research fellow Sara Lorkiewicz from the Michael E. DeBakery VA Medical Center explained that when an individual experiences this, alcohol disrupts brain region mechanisms that play a role in new memory formation and later information recall.
This means that alcohol stops sensory information transfer to long-term memory from short-term memory.
Because of this, individuals could consciously interact with their environment yet not recall all or some details regarding the drinking event. This is due to the fact that the brain was not able to process such data.
These alcohol-related blackouts usually happen when a person drinks large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. This leads to a rapid spike in alcohol concentration in the blood.
Lorkiewicz explained that risky drinking behaviors, which are quite prevalent among young drinkers, are the strongest predictors of such blackouts.
Other behaviors, such as polysubstance use and drinking on an empty stomach, may also affect the bodily processing of alcohol. This could also increase the risk of having such blackouts.
Young people have a higher likelihood of experiencing such blackouts. This is mainly due to the culture of binge drinking.
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Chronic Effects of Alcohol-Related Blackouts
A new study shows that such a way of drinking could chronically affect the brain as well as cognitive processing.
Over a period of six years, Lorkiewicz followed a group of individuals aged 12 to 24. These individuals were part of a national study on the effects of the effects of alcohol use on the brains of young people.
Lorkiewicz found that the brain's fusiform gyrus, which has been linked to visual information processing related to bodies and faces, was quite sensitive to alcohol's cumulative effects early on.
The team also found that heavy drinking episodes could impact the hippocampus later on. This brain region is responsible for transferring short-term memories into the long-term.
Lorkiewicz noted that they discovered that alcohol-related blackouts could predict reduced structural maturation of regions of the brain that play a role in memory and learning. Cognitive changes could also possibly occur later on.
Young individuals are quite vulnerable to such effects. Since the developing brain is more vulnerable to such adverse impacts, emerging adults and adolescents are at risk for neurocognitive changes in the future that are associated with intermittent and heavy alcohol use and alcohol-related blackouts.
Findings were tackled during the Research Society on Alcohol's 47th annual scientific meeting.
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