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How does alcohol cause blackouts? - Shannon Odell

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TEDEd Animation

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Alcohol has been shown to have strange and selective effects on the brain. Many intoxicated people can perform complex tasks like holding a detailed conversation or navigating a walk home. Yet for those experiencing a blackout, the memory of these events is quickly forgotten. So, how does alcohol cause these memory lapses? Shannon Odell explores how ethanol interrupts the brain’s processes.

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Shannon Odell
  • Director Anton Bogaty
  • Narrator Pen-Pen Chen
  • Music Jarrett Farkas
  • Sound Designer and Mixer Weston Fonger
Avatar for Hayley Levitt
Lesson creator

What do alcohol-induced blackouts reveal about how the brain functions?

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Avatar for ابن حلب شخصيه
Lesson completed

Alcohol-related blackouts are gaps in a person's memory for events that occurred while they were intoxicated.

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