what part of the brain is memory affected by alcohol
Effects of alcohol on memory Alcohol acts as a general central nervous system depressant, but it also affects specific areas of the brain to a greater extent than others. Memory impairment due to alcohol has been linked to disruption of hippocampal functionâ€”in particular affecting gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) neurotransmission which negatively impacts long-term potentiation (LTP).[2] The molecular basis of LTP is associated with learning and memory.[3] Particularly, damage to hippocampal CA1 cells adversely affects memory formation,[4] and this disruption has been linked to dose-dependent levels of alcohol consumption.[5] At higher doses, alcohol significantly inhibits neuronal activity in the CA1 and CA3 pyramidal cell layers of the hippocampus.[6][7][8] This impairs memory encoding[9] since the hippocampus plays an important role in the formation of new memories.