Quantitative effects of ethanol infusion on smooth pursuit eye movements in man

Lehtinen, I.; Nyrke, T.; Lang, A. H.; Pakkanen, A; Keskinen, Esko

doi:10.1007/bf00436102

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The present findings confirm those from studies by Lehtinen et al [21] and Barnes [3] that smooth-pursuit eye movements are significantly disturbed at various blood alcohol concentrations in healthy volunteers tracking targets moving in constant velocity ramps of 15°/s. Smooth-pursuit eye movement gain decreased dose-dependently but was compensated by an increased number of catch-up saccades.…”

Section: Smooth-pursuit Eye Movementssupporting

confidence: 95%

“…Doses of ethanol corresponding to blood alcohol levels of about 1‰ are known to impair saccades and smooth-pursuit eye movements [1, 20,21]. The present findings confirm those from studies by Lehtinen et al [21] and Barnes [3] that smooth-pursuit eye movements are significantly disturbed at various blood alcohol concentrations in healthy volunteers tracking targets moving in constant velocity ramps of 15°/s.…”

Section: Smooth-pursuit Eye Movementssupporting

confidence: 94%

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The effect of oral ethanol consumption on eye movements in healthy volunteers

Möser¹,

Heide²,

Kömpf³

1998

Journal of Neurology

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Horizontal and vertical eye movements were recorded and analysed with an infrared photoelectric technique in 12 healthy volunteers under various blood alcohol concentrations (0.0, 0.5, 1.0 g/kg body weight, [% per thousand]). The predictive smooth-pursuit tracking and saccadic eye movements were studied in response to unpredictable target jumps and during scanning of a classical kitchen scene and a traffic scene. Smooth-pursuit eye movement gain value decreased dose-dependently and was compensated by an increased number of catch-up saccades. With increasing blood alcohol concentrations peak velocities of horizontal and vertical visually guided reflexive saccades decreased while their latencies to the target increased. At blood alcohol concentrations of 0.5% per thousand and 1.0% per thousand healthy volunteers showed significantly longer mean fixation durations and a lower total number of exploratory saccades when scanning both the classical kitchen scene and the traffic scene. Surprisingly, in both of these scanning tasks the total fixation duration or the relative number of exploratory saccades increased in those scene sectors in which exciting situations were presented. Additionally, the time interval needed to foveate these exciting areas for the first time increased, probably due to an attention deficit. In conclusion, these findings indicate that alcohol consumption impairs the velocity and initiation of saccadic and smooth-pursuit eye movements, but that subjects can nevertheless still recognize exciting and relevant areas of visual scenes. The significant increase in fixation time, however, does not allow scanning of the entire visual scene during an adequate period of time. Therefore the reduced visual exploration caused by alcohol reflects an impaired sensorimotor processing of active visual perception.

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Section: Smooth-pursuit Eye Movementssupporting

confidence: 95%

Section: Smooth-pursuit Eye Movementssupporting

confidence: 94%

The effect of oral ethanol consumption on eye movements in healthy volunteers

Möser¹,

Heide²,

Kömpf³

1998

Journal of Neurology

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“…The average percentage of smooth pursuit for all stimulus frequencies was used as a parameter. This parameter can be used as an accurate biomarker for oculomotor function and attention [18]. The method has been validated at CHDR by Van Steveninck et al [19,20] based on the work of Bittencourt et al [21] and the original description of Baloh et al [22].…”

Section: Smooth Pursuit Eye Movementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Central nervous system effects of alcohol at a pseudo‐steady‐state concentration using alcohol clamping in healthy volunteers

Zoethout¹,

Schoemaker²,

Zuurman³

et al. 2009

Brit J Clinical Pharma

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WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT• The acute effects of alcohol are often studied after oral administration, and alcohol exposure is controlled by adaptation of the dose to weight, and sometimes to sex or demographic variables.• Measurements of the alcohol effects are usually performed at fixed time intervals after intake.• In only a few studies has alcohol been administered intravenously to by-pass the variability in absorption, but plasma levels often vary after administration and efforts to maintain constant levels are rare. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS• The pharmacodynamic central nervous system (CNS) effects of alcohol or drug-alcohol interactions can be more accurately investigated if alcohol is administered intravenously and alcohol levels are kept within tightly controlled limits.• In the current study we introduce a clamping procedure to study the acute effects of a constant alcohol level of 0.6 g l -1 for 5 h on a wide range of CNS domains.• The obtained pseudo-steady-state levels with very little inter-and intravariability allow the separation of concentration-and time-dependent changes in alcohol effects. AIMIn determining the acute effects of alcohol, it is helpful if alcohol concentrations are maintained at stable levels, to facilitate the interpretation of the results. Recently, an alcohol clamping method was developed that resulted in stable alcohol concentrations for hours. The aim of this study was to test a range of central nervous system (CNS) effects under pseudo-steady-state conditions. METHODSTo achieve a pseudo-steady state of 0.6 g l -1 , breath alcohol concentrations (BrAC) were frequently measured and fed back into a spreadsheet-based program to guide intravenous dosing. CNS effects were frequently measured throughout the clamp. RESULTSThe clamping paradigm resulted in a pseudo-steady-state BrAC of 0.61 g l -1(coefficient of variation 6.2%). A plateau was maintained from 25 to 300 min and caused significant effects on smooth pursuit eye movements [-9.7%, 95% confidence interval (CI) -12.4, -7.1], adaptive tracking (-3.4%, 95% CI -4.5, -2.2), visual analogue scale (VAS) alertness (-13 mm, 95% CI -20, -6), VAS alcohol effects (16 mm, 95% CI 7, 25) and body sway (21.3%, 95% CI 1.8, 45). Some effects (like smooth pursuit eye movements) closely followed the relatively stable alcohol concentrations, whereas others (such as body sway and VAS alcohol effects) fluctuated during the plateau phase. CONCLUSIONSMost CNS effects of alcohol showed a trend to change over time, despite stable concentrations. Other variables remained stable under pseudo-steady-state conditions. The intravenous clamping method provides precise control over BrAC levels and allows frequent repetition of different CNS measurements. These features make this technique eminently suitable to study the complex pharmacodynamic effects of acute alcohol administration.

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“…Acute alcohol intoxication is associated with unsteadiness of gait, slurring of speech, slowing of saccades, and oculomotor symptoms suggesting cerebellar dysfunction. [1][2][3][4][5] Another even more striking symptom is positional alcohol nystagmus (PAN) and vertigo, which suggest a peripheral vestibular dysfunction. 6 -13 The most widely accepted explanation for PAN is the socalled buoyancy mechanism.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

New insights into positional alcohol nystagmus using three-dimensional eye-movement analysis

et al. 1999

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The semicircular canals selectively transduce angular velocity and are normally insensitive to gravity and linear acceleration. In acute alcohol intoxication, however, the cupula becomes lighter than the endolymph, rendering it sensitive to gravity (buoyancy hypothesis). This results in positional alcohol nystagmus (PAN) and rotatory vertigo. We evaluated PAN in 8 normal subjects by means of three‐dimensional eye‐movement analysis in an attempt to clarify if the buoyancy mechanism is sufficient to explain PAN. Forty minutes after intake of 0.8 g of alcohol/kg of body weight, the subjects were positioned such that the lateral canals were earth vertical. They were then rotated in the plane of the lateral canals about an earth‐horizontal axis to either 45° or 90°, right or left ear down, and eye movements were recorded for 40 seconds in each position. The spatial analysis of the responses showed that in addition to the nystagmus induced by the buoyancy of all six cupulae, alcohol intoxication also causes a vertical velocity offset (in all subjects, slow phase down) that is independent of the orientation of the subject in space. The offset may represent a toxic effect on central vestibular pathways, producing a tone imbalance of the vertical vestibulo‐ocular reflex. Ann Neurol 1999;45:216–223

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Quantitative effects of ethanol infusion on smooth pursuit eye movements in man

Cited by 17 publications

References 26 publications

The effect of oral ethanol consumption on eye movements in healthy volunteers

The effect of oral ethanol consumption on eye movements in healthy volunteers

Central nervous system effects of alcohol at a pseudo‐steady‐state concentration using alcohol clamping in healthy volunteers

New insights into positional alcohol nystagmus using three-dimensional eye-movement analysis

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