Diminishing brainpower

The day after the drunken memory trial, the researchers called to check in on their subjects. None of the participants reported having fragmented memories of the test while it was happening, even though brain scans would beg to differ; the mismatch suggests the “blackout brain” was acting differently even before it started forgetting.

“What could be happening is that some individuals have a brain which can handle or compensate to a certain point but if you put a cognitive load on it, like alcohol, it just gets overloaded,” Wetherill said. “Things just aren’t working as efficiently.”

The study will be published in the June 2012 issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

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Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff Writer