Dose-related Effects of Alcohol on Dynamic Posturography and Oculomotor Measures

Goebel, Joel A.; Dunham, Douglas N.; Rohrbaugh, John; Fischel, Douglas; Stewart, Paula A.

doi:10.3109/00016489509125232

Cited by 25 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The finding of the present study contrasts with the data from the static conditions in dynamic posturography, in which no effect was observed (Goebel et al 1995;Tianwu et al 1995). Using dynamic conditions, however, distinct disturbances of acute low level alcohol ingestion were shown (Goebel et al 1995;Ledin and Ödkvist 1991;Tianwu et at.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 86%

“…Prior studies of alcohol have used elements of dynamic posturography (Diener et al 1983;Goebel et al 1995;Tianwu et al 1995;Woolacott 1983). These reports are helpful in order to demonstrate the sensitivity of the aformentioned method, yet they leave unanswered some important questions -particularly the nature of the effects of low and moderate doses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of alcohol on body-sway patterns in human subjects

Nieschalk

Ortmann

West

et al. 1999

International Journal of Legal Medicine

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The vestibulospinal aspects of vestibular function are commonly neglected in the evaluation of alcohol-induced intoxication. Thus, in the present study the effect of an acute intoxication with a low or moderate quantity of alcohol was examined with respect to the equilibrium in 30 healthy subjects. The blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was measured 30 min after the ingestion of the last alcohol, ranging between 0.22 and 1.59 per thousand. Stability of stance was quantified by static platform posturography in Romberg-test conditions with eyes open and eyes closed. Among other parameters, the average body sway path (SP) and area of body sway (SA) were assessed. Posturography revealed a significant increase in body sway. There was a positive correlation between SA (or SP) and BAC both with eyes open and eyes closed. Multiple group comparisons revealed that the large-alcohol-dose group (BAC > or = 1.0 per thousand) could be clearly differentiated from test cases with BAC lower than 0.8 per thousand. Sway area was the most sensitive parameter for detecting increased body sway after alcohol ingestion. The area increase, present not only with eyes closed but with eyes open, revealed an inadequate compensation of the ethanol-induced ataxia by visual stabilization. The Romberg's quotient, which denotes eyes closed relative to eyes open, remained constant. The increase in sway path with eyes closed showed an omnidirectional sway. A comparison of the sway pattern of subjects after acute ethanol ingestion with the data of patients with permanent cerebellar lesions suggested that the acute effect of alcohol resembles that of a lesion of the spinocerebellum. This finding contrasts with earlier studies, which postulated an acute effect of ethanol resembling that in patients with an atrophy of the anterior lobe of the cerebellum due to chronic alcohol abuse. In seven cases of the lower dose group (BAC < or = 0.8 per thousand), a reduction in body sway after alcohol ingestion was observed. This finding may be consistent with a dose-related biphasic action of alcohol, which - besides its well-known depressant effects with high doses - also shows stimulatory action with small doses.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of alcohol on body-sway patterns in human subjects

Nieschalk

Ortmann

West

et al. 1999

International Journal of Legal Medicine

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“…A few studies have shown that alcohol has a negative effect on smooth-pursuit eye movements [3,9,17,25,39,46] and our current (unpublished) investigations with the same acceleration as used in this work, but with slightly different visual test conditions (vestibular, visual, and visual-vestibular stimulation), show an additional significant influence of ethanol on the eye velocity of visual and combined visual-vestibular guided eye-movements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…5,6,24,29,41,45]. These studies showed that ethanol can induce a peripheral positional [4,9,28] or a bi-directional nystagmus [2]; impair saccadic [15,25] and pursuit eye movements [3,9,17,25,39,46]; lead to a disturbed visual suppression [18,19,35,25,39,41]; or lead to a decreasing slow phase of the optokinetic nystagmus [8] and reduce the gain of the vestibulo-ocular reflex [4,31,35]. Furthermore, Hill and Toffolon [20] found a reduction in the visual fields, in convergence and accommodation after ethanol ingestion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of ethanol on dynamic visual acuity during vertical body oscillation in healthy volunteers

Schmäl¹,

Kunz²,

Ortmann

et al. 2000

European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology

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Visual orientation is the most important sensory input during locomotion (e.g. walking, driving a car, riding a bicycle). We investigated dynamic visual acuity (DVA) during vertical body-oscillations (amplitude 5 cm; frequency 1.5 Hz) in 12 healthy subjects before and twice after ethanol consumption. During oscillation, vertical eye movements were recorded under two test conditions: with eyes closed (EC) and during DVA testing. A significant increase in vertical eye-amplitude after ethanol ingestion occurred only during EC tests, as a possible sign of vestibular hyperreaction. During vestibular stimulation alone (EC), ethanol did not affect the phase shift between stimulus and eye movements. However, when the subjects were given an additional visual stimulus (DVA), the post-alcohol phase shift rose significantly. Surprisingly, the post-alcohol phase shift values for the two test conditions showed no significant differences. After ethanol ingestion we found no changes in static visual acuity but a significant loss of DVA. Volunteers with a change of DVA threshold (DVAT) showed significantly (P = 0.004) higher post-alcoholic changes in the phase shift. In summary, low doses of ethanol disturbed the visually guided oculomotor response during fixation of an earth-fixed target while the observer was subject to linear vertical acceleration. This effect led to an increasing delay between the beginning of body and eye movements. The consequence was an increasing phase shift and thus a decrease in DVA during whole-body oscillation which was comparable to movements during human locomotion.

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“…The greatest deficits typically occur on tasks thought to rely on vestibular input, i.e. in which visual and proprioceptive cues are absent or misleading, such as standing with eyes closed on an unstable surface (Goebel et al, 1995;Ledin and Ödqvist, 1991;Tianwu et al, 1995;Woollacott, 1983). The clearest evidence of a direct effect of alcohol on the peripheral vestibular organs is the occurrence of positional alcohol nystagmus (PAN), in which alcohol is thought to change the specific gravity of the cupula, causing the semicircular canals to become sensitive to gravity and evoking nystagmus when the head is tilted laterally (Aschan and Bergstedt, 1975;Fetter et al, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of alcohol on cervical and ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials in healthy volunteers

Rosengren

Weber

Hegemann

et al. 2014

Clinical Neurophysiology

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OBJECTIVE: We investigated the effect of alcohol on the cervical and ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs and oVEMPs). As alcohol produces gaze-evoked nystagmus (GEN), we also tested the effect of nystagmus independent of alcohol by recording oVEMPs during optokinetic stimulation (OKS). METHODS: The effect of alcohol was tested in 14 subjects over multiple rounds of alcohol consumption up to a maximum breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) of 1.5‰ (mean 0.97‰).The effect of OKS was tested in 11 subjects at 5, 10 and 15deg/sec. RESULTS: oVEMP amplitude decreased from baseline to the highest BrAC level by 27% (range 5-50%, P<0.001), but there was no significant effect on oVEMP latency or cVEMP amplitude or latency. There was a significant negative effect of OKS on oVEMP amplitude (16%, P=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: We found a selective effect of alcohol on oVEMP amplitude, but no effect on the cVEMP. Vertical nystagmus elicited by OKS reduced oVEMP amplitude. SIGNIFICANCE: Alcohol selectively affects oVEMP amplitude. Despite the effects of alcohol and nystagmus, both reflexes were reliably recorded in all subjects and conditions. An absent response in a patient affected by alcohol or nystagmus indicates a vestibular deficit.

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Dose-related Effects of Alcohol on Dynamic Posturography and Oculomotor Measures

Cited by 25 publications

References 10 publications

Effects of alcohol on body-sway patterns in human subjects

Effects of alcohol on body-sway patterns in human subjects

Effect of ethanol on dynamic visual acuity during vertical body oscillation in healthy volunteers

The effect of alcohol on cervical and ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials in healthy volunteers

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