Positive effects of alcohol on the intelligent brain?

Hi all,

I'm putting this one out there out of curiosity more than anything.

We all hear about the negative effects of alcohol on the brain, but i am interested in an effect that could be deemed as positive, at least if it is used to it's full effect.

Quick background on this question, i am a total lightweight when it comes to drink! A one pint wonder, it literally only takes me a pint and i'm well on my way to the wobbly legs syndrome and spinning head. Cheap night out i guess.

So i rarely drink. I don't drink at home, maybe a pint or two a week at the local. That said, once a month, i might get down the pub and have a few...well two or three and something bizzare happens. I get a rush of great ideas and the feeling to sort things out on my life. It's like an alcohol induced brainstorming session!

They are not crazy ideas either, they make perfect sense, are workable and very much related to areas of my life that i may want to improve on (health, lifestyle, ideas for new work products.) It makes me want to get home asap and put them all into practise. When i do, they really do improve that area of my life.

I know it's a common thing for people to get whammed and "put the world to rights", but is there something that happens with the brain when you add alocohol that could make it more productive? They say peoples inhibitions go when they have a few drinks, do you think the same is happening with the inventive and inspirational aspect of the brain?

Don't worry, i'm not about to start drinking heavily for inspiration lol, but it does make me feel like having one "inspirational session" once a month to keep things ticking along!

Thanks for any advice.

CX.

I was a pretty heavy drinker during my college years (maybe that's why it took me 7 years to get my B.S. in pyschology and 5 to get my Masters!) and when I drank I frequently had valuable ideas that made a lot of sense and seemed to be amazing. Often I would videotape these revolutionary ideas so that I wouldn't forget the brilliant thought I had or risk not being able to read my drunken writing.

The ideas weren't nearly as earth-shattering, entertaining or even amusing when I would sober up and watch my 'brilliance'. I'm sure I had one or two highly intelligent ideas while in a drunken stupor but really those were the exception rather than the rule.

I would suggest video taping yourself and then watching it when you are sober.

Jemison

reply to post by CX


Research has shown that you psychological state and environmental context when you learn something can affect your ability to recall it later.
So if you are drunk when you learn something new , being drunk can help you remember it .
I would imagine the inhibitions broken down by alcohol are predominately social in nature.
I think its the hallucinogen's stimulants etc, that take may take credit for insights gleaned from "outside the box".

Inhibitions fulfill an important function i might add , we can`t have people speaking their minds now can we

makes me more eloquent and garrulous thats for sure.

In college I always found that drinking helped me write papers, but was detrimental to absorbing information. I think it just relieved my tendency to always try to think three steps ahead of myself when I'm writing.

Several years later, when I was drinking very heavily, I did a highly unscientific experiment one night while surfing the internet and getting drunk: I took six different online IQ tests while drinking beers #7-12 of the evening.

Since those tests are not exactly known for their strict accuracy, I couldn't make any definite conclusions. But my score was about the same for the first two tests and then dropped about 10 points for each beer I drank

(edit for clarity)

[edit on 11/23/08 by americandingbat]

It changes how you think when you are under the influence.
Changes how you think, doesn't necessarily make you smarter.
How it changes how you think is kind of like rolling a dice.
It might make you dumber in one area and smarter in another.
Someone once said to me they thought the fact that it kills off brain cells.
And the cells grow back, that they might grow back differently and in a different place.
Therefore you can gain extra strength in certain areas of the brain and lose it in others.
Some of the smartest people who have come up with some great idea's in history have liked a drink.
Short term memory and long term memory.
Seem to produce different things.
And messing with this seems to change things.
However some will just dismiss this as the fact it excites you and makes you try harder and take more risks.

I don't believe alcohol positively influences intelligence in anyway shape or form. It doesn't even give you a new point of view, it merely blurs your current point of view.

Alternatively, Marijuana gives you more insight and an alternative point of view. I am not condoning the use of drugs, however I enjoy to puff the reef now and again to ponder facts and situations in a new light.

More intelligent...? Probably not...

I know I troll more on this site when I have been drinking...so I'd say it definitely gets one more involved with other members...

Love this post. Anyway, I believe it just opens a person up, uninhibiting the mind to thoughts that are already there but hidden in your subconcious. We are all of intelligent design but sometimes things just get stuck in the bottleneck of thoughts and reaction. I believe it just opens that up. We become more open. I love my beer. But, I have hangovers so I don't and won't drink all the time, even if I didn't have hangovers I wouldn't drink all the time. Point being, when I start, I get hyper and things just seem to roll out of my true thinking and I need to talk to someone just to let it all out and I have a wonderful time. Just my thoughts.

Originally posted by blowfishdl
I don't believe alcohol positively influences intelligence in anyway shape or form. It doesn't even give you a new point of view, it merely blurs your current point of view.

Alternatively, Marijuana gives you more insight and an alternative point of view. I am not condoning the use of drugs, however I enjoy to puff the reef now and again to ponder facts and situations in a new light.

Alcohol and drugs, have different effects on different people, at different times.
To say it makes all people one way, is illogical.
Some people who smoke marijuana, are dopey and stupid, some are angry and paranoid, some are relaxed and creative.
Similar with alcohol.
This of course depends on many other factors as well such as dosage, physical make up, immunity etc.
Scholars at Oxford and Cambridge in England, sit around drinking pints discussing things we could barely comprehend.

If you want real mind-opening and conscious-expanding experiences, I suggest you try psychedelics.

MDMA would be a good bridge to go from alcohol to the heavy stuff, though.

(I do not condone coke/heroin use)

I find that the drinking lowers my inhibitions. However that being said it opens up doors to areas I normally would not explore sober. So in a sense it will give you a more hands on experience that depending on the situation could be bad or could be a break through.

For example I knew these 2 ladies. The first one I would get drunk with and always thought she was attractive. I end up spending more time with her after I'm sober to realize she's not what she seems.

The second lady I would never have looked at twice while I was sober. She wasn't unattractive or anything she just didn't seem my type and sober had no interest in her what so ever. After having one too many several times with her I start to realize there is a lot more to this lady than I thought there was when I was sober. Now I spend quite a bit of time talking and hanging out with this lady because we actually have quite a bit in common.

A third realization from being drunk was that not all my friends are what they seem. I had one person who I thought was a nice sweet person and after having a few drinks I started to notice she isn't as nice and sweet as she leads people to believe.

So from a social stand point you can see others in a different light, possibly a more accurate light.

As for science and drinking well I'll say this. Me and several drunk friends decided to do a science experiment. We were told if you placed water in a paper cup and placed a flame under the cup the water would boil but the cup would not start on fire. So we prepped the experiment. Turns out the guy responsible for putting the water in the paper cup had accidentally placed Isopropal Alcohol in it instead. We all gathered around the cup staring down at it and luckily someone said that water smells like rubbing alcohol right before the flame went under it we went whoa backed up and poof.

Science and alcohol we decided do not mix.

If you only drink at the pub then perhaps it is also the coversations you have that give you inspiration, perhaps you bounce ideas around more. I assume you are not sitting there by yourself silently.

Originally posted by CaptainCaveMan

Originally posted by blowfishdl
I don't believe alcohol positively influences intelligence in anyway shape or form. It doesn't even give you a new point of view, it merely blurs your current point of view.

Alternatively, Marijuana gives you more insight and an alternative point of view. I am not condoning the use of drugs, however I enjoy to puff the reef now and again to ponder facts and situations in a new light.

Alcohol and drugs, have different effects on different people, at different times.
To say it makes all people one way, is illogical.
Some people who smoke marijuana, are dopey and stupid, some are angry and paranoid, some are relaxed and creative.
Similar with alcohol.
This of course depends on many other factors as well such as dosage, physical make up, immunity etc.
Scholars at Oxford and Cambridge in England, sit around drinking pints discussing things we could barely comprehend.

True. I would define my feeling under the influence of Marijuana to be insightful and creative. My feeling under alcohol is merely dizzy and hard to compose logical sentences.

Amount plays a factor as well, and the people at Cambridge discussing over pints clearly spend the majority of their time in the books than in the bars. This is a serious point to make out when alcoholics come on here in an attempt to defend their actions.