Differential Effects of Moderate Alcohol Consumption on Performance Among Older and Younger Adults

Abstract

Background Studies exploring differential effects of acute alcohol consumption on younger and older adults are lacking within the field of alcohol research, especially those using moderate doses. Previous studies addressing this question have tended to use complex behavioral tasks too broad to isolate specific neurocognitive processes affected by both alcohol and aging. Compromises in cognitive efficiency (i.e. the ability to respond both quickly and accurately) have previously been identified in both elderly and acutely intoxicated individuals. Methods The present study employed a visual-spatial, two-choice reaction time task to evaluate the interactive effects of aging and alcohol on cognitive efficiency. Our primary outcome measure was an efficiency ratio derived from each participant’s response accuracy (ACC) and mean reaction time (RT) (%correct/RT). Younger (25 – 35; n=22) and older (55 – 74; n=37) participants were randomly assigned to receive either a placebo or moderate alcohol dose intended to produce a peak BrAC of 0.04%. Participants performed the task at peak alcohol levels. Results: A significant interaction between age group and dose assignment was observed (F3,55=4.86, p=.03) for the efficiency ratio. Younger participants who received alcohol performed significantly better than did their older counterparts regardless of alcohol condition and despite no differences in performance between the two age groups in the placebo condition. Additional correlation analyses between ACC and RT suggested that moderately intoxicated older adults become more accurate as response times increase. This relationship was not observed in older adults in the placebo condition. Conclusions These data suggest that healthy individuals exhibit a differential susceptibility to the effects of alcohol depending on their age. Unfortunately, due to the presumed safety of moderate alcohol doses and a lack of studies investigating the interactive effects of acute alcohol consumption and aging, most individuals are unlikely to be aware of this relationship between alcohol consumption and age.

Alcohol Doesn’t Always Compromise Cognitive Function: Exploring Moderate Doses in Young Adults

“…Given the current study's BrACs at the time of TMT administration, our results lay within this distribution. Despite an emerging pattern for this particular task, discrepancies remain (e.g., Sklar et al, 2012, vs. Schulte et al, 2001, suggesting a need for systematic investigation of other modulating variables.…”

“…To maintain double-blind procedures, all other participants received a vehicle-only booster. This booster method demonstrates maintenance of group-appropriate BrACs over time (Gilbertson et al, 2009;Sklar et al, 2012). Task performance did not significantly differ between dose/sex-matched active and placebo booster recipients (ps > .05; low-dose group: Cohen's d for all tasks < .10).…”

“…The dependent variable was efficiency (calculated as % accurate / mean reaction time for accurate trials). This process-oriented measure is demonstrated to be relatively stable for a given participant and task (Thorne, 2006) and has been used effectively in our previous investigations (e.g., Hoffman et al, 2015;Sklar et al, 2012).…”

“…Inconsistencies could be attributable to a number of factors, including age (Sklar et al, 2012), drinking patterns (Weissenborn & Duka, 2003), and targeted BrACs (Dry et al, 2012). Another potential but understudied influence is sex/gender.…”

“…Using a variety of cognitive tasks, low-and moderatedose alcohol, relative to placebo, has produced deficient Field et al, 2010;Friedman et al, 2011), facilitated (Gilbertson et al, 2009;Sklar et al, 2012), and similar (Dry et al, 2012;Guillot et al, 2010;Milani & Curran, 2000) performance. Contradictory findings are also reported for identical tasks and similar alcohol concentrations (e.g., Dry et al, 2012, vs. Gilbertson et al, 2009.…”