Impaired Visual Search in Alcoholics

Abstract
Visual search performance was studied in detoxified long-term alcoholics, short-term alcoholics, and nonalcoholic controls. Measures of search time and errors indicated that alcoholics had significantly longer search times than controls and that long-term alcoholics had comparatively longer search times and more shape errors in the left visual hemispace than the other groups. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that alcoholism results in subtle frontal lobe and right hemisphere dysfunctions.