There is no simple equation to predict with certainty whether any one individual will experience a blackout, because alcohol’s effects depend on a complexity of physiological factors. We have to look at how memories are formed to understand the mechanisms behind a blackout. Memory is formed in three steps. First, the event is experienced and the brain interprets and encodes that event. Next, the stimuli are stored for safe keeping. Lastly, the memory is retrieved when recalling the experience. Short-term memory does all of this in a matter of seconds. Short-term memories are then either discarded or stored as long-term memories.
Alcohol acts on receptors in the brain to block the neural signals for memory formation. Booze screws up the encoding process by incorrectly writing important contextual information. In a brownout, the context has been corrupted during the encoding stage. If the right contextual information is provided, it is possible that a previously misfiled memory can be reshuffled into its correct place.