Friday, July 01, 2005

Headspins after drinking

You know how the room spins after you've been drinking? Well, have you ever noticed that after a while it stops spinning, then starts spinning the other way?? Ever wondered why?

Balance is handled by a small blob of jelly called the cupola. It is in a small chamber and is attached to the chamber walls by lots of tiny hairs. When you move your head, the ball of jelly moves a bit slower than the chamber which bends the tiny hairs and indicates to the brain that you've moved.

When you drink alcohol, because it's such a terrific solvent, it gets just about everywhere, including in the cupola. The shape of the cupola is distorted by the alcohol, bending the hairs. Your brain interprets this as a rotational force (ie: you're spinning around).

In time the alcohol diffuses out of the cupola. However, by then your brain has gotten used to the the fact that your head is spinning and adjusted it's interpretation of the signals coming from the cupola. So it interprets your normal signals as seeming to spin in the opposite direction!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I thought it was my brain being melted, but in fact it's my ears! Freaky.