Slowing effects of alcohol on voluntary eye movements.

The effect of a moderate dosage of alcohol on the latency and saccadic velocity of eye movements was assessed by three kinds of task complexities such as the "simple," "comparison," and "addition response tasks" to displayed stimuli. Six male subjects volunteered for the study. For each subject, a total of 570 trials were made on four consecutive days. In terms of absolute alcohol, the dose was 1.0 ml.kg-1 of body weight. The slowing effect of alcohol on the latency ranged from 8.4 to 16.8% (mean 12.7%) corresponding to the task complexity. The impairment of the saccadic velocity ranged from 17.4 to 25.5% (mean 18.6%). It was suggested that the task complexity reflected on the latency, but not on the saccadic velocity.