system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What causes you to "black out" and not remember things when you've had too much to drink?
gpt
Without getting into the exact neuroanatomy of memory formation...

Alcohol works by "depressing" the neurons in your brain, making them less likely to fire (less likely to trigger an action potential).  Since your brain is basically a huge network of neurons that fire and cause other neurons to fire, this global depression causes every thing to work less well.  When this occurs in your frontal cortex, which contains your conscious "self" (to a certain extent, remember this is dumbed down), your judgement and impulse control decreases.  When this occurs in your motor cortex and cerebellum, your coordination decreases.  When this occurs in your hippocampus, which is responsible for integrating your real-time experiences with your long-term memory, you don't create lasting impressions (memories) of your experiences when you are drunk.  Hence, you can experience something while you are drunk without forming permanent connections that can be accessed later.  This translates to "holes" in your memory.