Lesson 29: Alcohol and You - Slide  25

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Alcohol Kills Brain Cells

  • Brain imaging techniques show the brain shrinks after long-term alcohol use
  • Alcohol does kill brain cells
  • The frontal lobe of the cortex, right behind your forehead, is most vulnerable
  • The frontal lobe allows you to solve complex problems, execute plans, and use judgment
  • Two brain areas, hippocampus and mammillary bodies, are critical to forming memory and are damaged by alcohol
  • In someone who drinks chronically, though at a lower level than someone who is clearly addicted to alcohol, the memory function can be damaged as these areas are more sensitive to alcohol

Notes:

Pg. 42, “Buzzed, The Straight Facts About The Most Used And Abused Drugs From Alcohol To Ecstasy, Second Edition” Cynthia Kuhn, Ph.D., Scott Swartzwelder,Ph.D. and Wilkie Wilson, Ph.D., W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2003

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