system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What happens in the brain when you blackout from drinking alcohol?
gpt
Your brain is filled with special cells called neurons. At the end of the neurons, the neurons shoot out special chemicals called neurotransmitters to talk to the next neuron. 

Alcohol is a type of drug called a depressant. It lowers the number of neurotransmitters thereby making your brain work slower. The part of your brain that forms new memories is called the hippocampus. When you drink too much alcohol, the neurons in the hippocampus move too slowly to save new memories. 

Alcohol affects certain parts of the brain more than others. The frontal cortex, which controls judgement, the cerebellum, which controls balance, and the hippocampus, which controls forming memories are affected earlier than other parts of the brain, such as the reticular activating system, which controls whether you are awake or not. That's why you can still be awake, but not saving new memories. When the alcohol level is high enough to take out the RAS, you pass out.