Why is the brain able to remember functioning vital tasks such as breathing or pumping blood when he is so drunk he cannot even walk straight?

Question

Why is the brain able to remember functioning vital tasks such as breathing or pumping blood when he is so drunk he cannot even walk straight?

In: Biology

Answer 1

You have 2 brains.

One handles actions that require complexity; math, speech, future planning.

The other handles the things that keep you alive, like breathing, and heart rate.

ELI10
Central nervous system vs peripheral nervous system.
One of the reasons you can’t walk straight isn’t because the second brain isn’t functioning, it’s due to hardening of fluid in your ear that disrupt balance. So you don’t lose your ability to walk, you lose your ability to balance. If you close your eyes and stand perfectly still, you can feel the wobble. Your ears act as balance weights to help you determine if you’re tilted.

Your heart has a fail-safe system (sinoatrial nodes, think pacemaker) that keeps it pumping and can operate independently of everything else. So that even when you’re blackout drunk and dying of alcohol poisoning, it can keep pumping.