Effects of alcohol on attention orienting and dual-task performance during simulated driving: An event-related potential study

Abstract

Driving is a complex task and is susceptible to inattention and distraction. Moreover, alcohol has a detrimental effect on driving performance, possibly due to alcohol-induced attention deficits. The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of alcohol on simulated driving performance and attention orienting and allocation, as assessed by event-related potentials (ERPs). Thirty-two participants completed two test runs in the Divided Attention Steering Simulator (DASS) with blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) of 0.00%, 0.02%, 0.05%, 0.08% and 0.10%. Sixteen participants performed the second DASS test run with a passive auditory oddball to assess alcohol effects on involuntary attention shifting. Sixteen other participants performed the second DASS test run with an active auditory oddball to assess alcohol effects on dual-task performance and active attention allocation. Dose-dependent impairments were found for reaction times, the number of misses and steering error, even more so in dual-task conditions, especially in the active oddball group. ERP amplitudes to novel irrelevant events were also attenuated in a dose-dependent manner. The P3b amplitude to deviant target stimuli decreased with blood alcohol concentration only in the dual-task condition. It is concluded that alcohol increases distractibility and interference from secondary task stimuli, as well as reduces attentional capacity and dual-task integrality.

How Human Electrophysiology Informs Psychopharmacology: from Bottom-up Driven Processing to Top-Down Control

“…One hypothesis is that both the stop P3 and the P3a implement a behavioral interrupt signal, perhaps based in medial-superior frontal regions. P3a reducing effects of acute moderate alcohol (0.05% BAC) were recently described (Wester et al, 2010). Acute alcohol (0.08%) also lengthens stop signal RTs (Loeber and Duka, 2009), and a remaining question is whether this impaired stopping is associated also with reductions in the stop P3, given that the stop P3 is similar to the P3a in reflecting a behavioral interrupt signal.…”

“…Therefore, it can easily be dissociated from direct performance as affected by diverse manipulations, including drug interventions. Wester et al (2010) recently showed that while performance measures were affected by blood-alcohol concentrations of 0.05% and higher, P300 amplitude was already reduced with a BAC of 0.02%. Another dissociation was reported in a study by Van Laar et al (2002) on the effects of the tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline (25 mg).…”

Citric acid reduces the decline in P300 amplitude induced by acute alcohol consumption in healthy adults

“…Alcohol has sedative and detrimental effects on both performance and cognitive functioning (Wester et al, 2010), contributing to neurodegeneration and cognitive impairment (Cippitelli et al, 2010). Acetaldehyde, the first metabolite of alcohol, has been suggested to be involved in many behavioral effects after ethanol administration (Correa et al, 2012).…”

Long-term retention of a divided attention psycho-motor test combining choice reaction test and postural balance test: A preliminary study

“…The impairment caused by psychotropic substances is commonly known as driving under the influence of drugs (DUID), whilst driving while impaired (DWI) considers any source of impairment. For instance, alcohol reduces multitasking ability (Wester et al, 2010;Harrison and Fillmore, 2011) and it impairs executive functions (Rudin-Brown et al, 2013), while both physical and mental fatigue inhibit attentional shift control, which is directing attention to a specific point (Lorist et al, 2002;Boksem et al, 2005). Moreover, fatigue also accentuates the effects of alcohol and other psychotropic substances (Mills et al, 2001;Rakauskas et al, 2008).…”