Effects of acute alcohol ingestion on eye movements and cognition: A double-blind, placebo-controlled study

Abstract

Alcohol is one of the most consumed psychoactive substances in the world, and the negative impact related to alcohol use has become a worldwide public health issue. Alcohol is able to affect diffusely several areas of the Central Nervous System, which could impair visual functions, including eye movements, and cognitive processes. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of moderate alcohol intake in eyes movements, as an indicator of cognitive processing underlying the visual search in a the Maze task. We investigated the concentration of 0.08% blood alcohol concentration (BAC), using an intra-subject, double-blind, and placebo-controlled experimental design with a sample size of 20 young adults (11 men and nine women). All volunteers participated in both conditions, i.e., alcohol (0.08%) and placebo (0.00%), in a counterbalanced order. We use the Tobii TX300 eye tracker to evaluate eye movements during completion of Visual Maze Test. The results showed significant differences in the following eye movement patterns: the first fixation latency, number and duration of fixations (mean and total), the number and duration of saccades (mean and total), and the total execution time in the test. In addition, we investigate the areas of interest (AOI), decision points in which the participant must decide which course to follow. We verified that the participants in the alcohol condition had a significantly greater number of fixations in both AOI, in comparison to the placebo condition. Overall, our findings confirm that moderate doses of alcohol can change the eye movements of young adults. These alterations may evidence the influence of alcohol in cognitive processes, such as flexibility, attention, and planning, which are required during resolution of Maze Task.

Dose‐dependent sensorimotor impairment in human ocular tracking after acute low‐dose alcohol administration

“…The impairment of eye movements by EtOH has been previously described across the entire gamut of voluntary and reflexive human oculomotor behaviours: saccades (Vorstius et al 2008;Roche & King, 2010;Silva et al 2017), smooth pursuit (Lehtinen et al 1982;Blekher et al 1997;Fransson et al 2010), vergence (Miller et al 1986;Miller, 1991), eccentric fixation (Romano et al 2017), the vestibulo-ocular reflex (Takahashi et al 1989;Post et al 1994;Roth et al 2014) and optokinetic nystagmus (Mizoi et al 1969). Previous studies showed that steady-state, closed-loop pursuit gain during tracking of sinusoidal or step-ramp target motion was significantly decreased at levels ranging from 0.04 to 0.10% BAC (Fransson et al 2010;Roche & King, 2010).…”

“…2008; Roche & King, 2010; Silva et al . 2017), smooth pursuit (Lehtinen et al . 1982; Blekher et al .…”

Methods for the initial (non-laboratory) assessment of unfitness for driving caused by psychoactive substances

“…czułość, specyficzność) konkretnych urządzeń do wykrywania zaburzeń powodowanych przez substancje psychoaktywne. Mimo że niektórzy producenci [49, 50] odwołują się na swoich stronach do licznych publikacji naukowych poświęconych ich produktom, jedynie pojedyncze prace wskazują na przydatność eye-trackingu do detekcji osób będących pod wpływem substancji psychoaktywnych [52,53]. Doniesienia mówią o stacjonarnym używaniu tego typu urządzeń w instytucjach publicznych, np.…”

“…of specific devices for detecting disturbances caused by psychoactive substances. Although some manufacturers [49, 51] provide on their websites abundant lists of scientific publications made using their products, only a few works demonstrating the usefulness of eye-tracking for the detection of persons under the influence of psychoactive substances [52,53] have been found. There are also reports of the use of such devices in stationary form in public institutions in various countries, e.g.…”

Development and Evaluation of Maze-Like Puzzle Games to Assess Cognitive and Motor Function in Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases

“…Mazes are complex visual-motor planning and problemsolving tasks that require finding a path from the start to the end of a maze as quickly as possible. Mazes are non-verbal, simple to understand and use, relatively independent of educational level and suitable for a wide range of older adults and persons with cognitive impairment (Marhasev et al, 2009;Silva et al, 2017). Maze tasks require an interplay between both cognitive and motor processes and are similar to complex everyday activities that require planning and problem solving (Lewis and Miller, 2007;Marhasev et al, 2009;Howieson, 2019).…”