THE EFFECTS OF ETHANOL ON VISUAL-VESTIBULAR INTERACTION DURING ACTIVE AND PASSIVE HEAD MOVEMENTS

  • 1 January 1985
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 56  (7) , 695-701
Abstract
The effects of visual-vestibular interaction of a moderate dose of ethyl alcohol (blood alcohol 80 mg .cntdot.100 ml-1) were investigated in 2 experiments. In the first, alcohol was shown to degrade both visual pursuit and suppression of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) in a similar manner when the vestibular response was induced by passive oscillation on a turntable at frequencies of 0.11-1.2 Hz. In the 2nd experiment a similar degradation in VOR suppression was observed when subjects made volitional head movements of frequencies of 0.5-3 Hz. In addition, the effectiveness of vestibulo-ocular compensation was shown to be significantly reduced by alcohol when viewing an earth-fixed target during voluntary head movements. Although alcohol induced small changes in the vestibulo-ocular response recorded in darkness, the main effect on oculomotor performance was a reduced effectiveness in the visual feedback of retinal error information.