Alcohol: Effects on Performance

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Alcohol Effects on Performance

• Shannon Amerilda Scielzo

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General Effects

• Low doses
• Mild euphoria
• Anxiolytic effect reduces the effects of
  anxiety
• Rat studies reduces inhibitory effects to
  aversive stimuli
• Lower inhibitions
• Impaired concentration
• Reduced coordination
• Impaired reaction time
• Medium doses
• Slurred
• Altered emotions
• Sedation
• High doses
• Breathing difficulty
• Vomiting
• Unconsciousness
• Positive and negative reinforcement

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General Effects

• Effects may be related to
• Age
• Gender
• Physical condition
• Amount of food consumed
• Interactions with other drugs
• Cells of body affected by destabilization of cell
  membranes
• Alcohol is very small molecule, soluble in lipids
• Crosses the blood-brain barrier
• Neurochemical effects

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Neurochemical Effects

• NMDA and GABAA receptors
• Increased activity of dopaminergic neurons
• Indirectly partially through NMDA antagonism
• Partially due to reducing the chemical that
  breaks dopamine down

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Nucleu Accumbens
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NMDA Receptors

• NMDA receptors
• Inverse agonist for receptors interferes with
  the effects of glutamate
• Glutamate is the most important excitatory
  neurotransmitter in the brain
• NMDA Antagonists produce sedative and anxiolytic
  effects
• Interfere with cognitive performance
• Tabakoff and Hoffman (1996)
• NMDA antagonists release dopamine
• Both positive and negative reinforcements
• Loscher, Annies, Honack (1991)

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NMDA Receptors

• Alcohol disrupts long-term potentiation
• Learning
• Spatial receptive fields of place cells in the
  hippocampus
• Likely partly explains effects on memory and
  other cognitive functions

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GABAA receptors

• Alcohol is an indirect agonist to GABAA receptors
• CL-
• Inhibitory post-synaptic potentials
• Neuron less excitable

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Intake of CL-
http//www.thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_03/i_03_m/
i_03_m_par/i_03_m_par_alcool.html
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Chronic Alcohol Consumption

• NMDA receptors become hypersensitive to glutamate
• GABA receptors become desensitized
• State of excitation when experiencing alcohol
  withdrawal
• Shaking
• Tremors
• Sleeping problems
• Hallucinations

• http//faculty.washington.edu/chudler/alco.html

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Research on Performance

• Effects of alcohol on performance have been
  recognized for close to 70 years (c.f., Jellinek
  McFarland, 1940)
• Research thus far suggests effects of alcohol are
  minimal when stimuli
• Are simple or explicit
• Are presented in the absense of competing demands
• Involve automatic processes with immediate
  responses
• Casbon, Curtin, Lang, Patrick (2006)

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Inattentional Blindness

• Random assignment, one drink
• Either alcoholic or placebo
• 25 second video clip
• Gorilla ran through
• Alcohol condition twice as likely not to notice
  the gorilla
• Clifsefi, Takarangi, Bergman (2006)

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Effects on Driving

• High-fidelity driving simulator
• Cell phone drivers
• Braking reactions delayed
• More accidents
• Drivers who were intoxicated from ethanol (i.e.,
  BAL of .08).
• More aggressive driving style
• Followed closer to the vehicle in front
• Applied more force while breaking
• Strayer, Drews, Crouch (2006)

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Effects on Driving ADHD

• Virtual reality driving simulator
• 2 single, acute doses of alcohol
• Continuous performance test inattention measures
  and behavioral observations
• More affected for ADHD group
• Both groups had decreased performance on the
  driving simulator scores
• Barkley, Murphy, OConnell, Anderson, Connor
  (2006)

Alcohol
Performance
ADHD
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Placebo Effects
Anticipated Effects
Focus
Performance

• Placebo participants may focus on attentional
  cues to compensate for anticipated cognitive
  impairment
• The compensatory strategies may involve a
  sensitization of evaluative control
• Thus, in some situations may result in improved
  performance
• Testa, Fillmore, Jeanette, Abbey, Curtin,
  Leonard, et al., (2006)

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Risk-Seeking Behavior

• Group decision-making task
• 3-person groups that consumed either alcohol or a
  placebo
• Complete a 30-min questionnaire battery
• Toss a coin
• Either no questionnaires or a 60-minute one
• Groups consuming alcohol were more likely to
  choose the coin toss
• Sayette, Kirchner, Moreland, Levine, Travis
  (2006)

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Cognitive Ability Over Time

• Light to moderate drinking and cognitive function
  
• 7 or fewer drinks per week
• Retired veterans
• Current drinkers had significantly better
  cognitive performance on 3 of 4 tests then
  non-drinkers
• The number of years drinking also contributed
  unique variance
• Reid, Van Ness, Hawkins, Towle, Concato, Guo
  (2006)

Number of years drinking
Amount of Drinking
Cognitive Function
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Alcohol Attentional Bias
Alcohols physical effects
Attentional Bias
Cognitive Performance

• Attentional bias only an artifact of impaired
  cognitive functioning?
• Classic Stroop test (a measure of inhibitory
  control)
• Shipley Institute of Living Scale (SILS a
  measure of verbal and abstraction ability)
• Chronic drinkers vs social drinkers had
• Lower performance on the SILS and Stroop
  interference
• Greater alcohol attentional bias
• The authors suggested that excessive drinking
  sensitizes chronic alcohol users attentional
  responsiveness to alcohol-related stimuli more
  than alcohol actually affects cognitive
  functioning
• Fadardi, Cox (2006)

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Cognitive Control

• Perseverative behavior - continuation of a
  behavior when cues are present that it should
  alter or cease
• n-back working memory task
• Task complexity
• Prepotency of inclinations to respond
• Alcohol or no-alcohol conditions
• Perseveration of prepotent, task-inappropriate
  response patterns only under cognitively
  demanding (heavy memory load) conditions
• This effect was evident for both commission
  errors and omission errors
• The authors suggested that alcohol-induced
  perservation is derived from impairments in
  cognitive control
• Casbon, Curtin, Lang, Patrick (2006)

Alcohol
Cognitive Control
Behavioral Performance
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Perceptual Speed

• 4 temporal-factors tests (Pre/post administration
  BAC of .11)
• Simultaneity
• Apparent Movement
• Bistable Stroboscopic Motion
• Backward Masking
• Pre-posttest changes indicated slowed perceptual
  speed
• Perceptual speed was still slowed as BAC
  decreased
• Simultaneity and Backward Masking were still
  significantly slowed at .096.
• Thus, task-performance is likely mediated by the
  effects of alcohol on perceptual speed
• Jones, Chronister, Kennedy, R. S. (2006)

Alcohol
Perceptual Speed
Task Performance
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References

• Barkley, R. A., Murphy, K. R., OConnell, T.,
  Anderson, D., Connor, D. E. (2006). Effects of
  two doses of alchohol on simulator driving
  performance in adults with attention
  deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Neuropsychology,
  20(1), 77-87.
• Casbon, T. S., Curtin, J. J., Lang, A. R.,
  Patrick, C. J. (2006). Deleterious effects of
  alcohol intoxication Diminished cognitive
  control and its behavioral consequences. Journal
  of Abnormal Psychology, 112(3), 476-487.
• Carlson, N. R. (1999). Foundations of
  Physiological Psychology (4th ed.). Allyn
  Bacon Boston.
• Clifsefi, S. L., Takarangi, M. K., Bergman, J.
  S. (2006). Blind drunk The effects of alcohol on
  inattentional blindness. Applied Cognitive
  Psychology, 20(5), 697-704.
• Curtin, J. J., Fairchild, B. A. (2006). Alcohol
  and cognitive control Implications for
  regulation of behavior during response conflict.
  Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112(3), 424-436.
• Fadardi, J. S., Cox, W. M. (2006). Alcohol
  attentional bias  Drinking salience or cognitive
  impairment? Psychopharmacology, 185(2), 169-178.

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References

• http//www.thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_03/i_03_m/
  i_03_m_par/i_03_m_par_alcool.html
• http//faculty.washington.edu/chudler/alco.html
• http//www.erowid.org/chemicals/alcohol/alcohol.sh
  tml
• http//www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060629_bli
  nd_drunk.html
• http//www.med.unc.edu/alcohol/cenline/11_1_1.htm
• Jones, M. B., Chronister, J. L., Kennedy, R. S.
  (2006). Effects of alcohol on perceptual speed.
  Perceptual and Motor Skills, 87(3), 1247-1255.
• Kirchner, T. R., Sayette, M. A. (2006). Effects
  of alcohol on controlled and automatic memory
  processes. Experimental and Clinical
  Psychopharmacology, 11(2), 167-175.

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References

• Reid, M. C., Van Ness, P. H., Hawkins, K. A.,
  Towle, V., Concato, J., Guo, Z. (2006). Light
  to Moderate Alcohol Consumption Is Associated
  With Better Cognitive Function Among Older Male
  Veterans Receiving Primary Care. Journal of
  Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 19(2),
  98-105.
• Sayette, M. A., Kirchner, T. R., Moreland, R. L.,
  Levine, J. M., Travis, T. (2006). Effects of
  alcohol on risk-seeking behavior A group level
  of analysis. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors,
  18(2), 190-193.
• Strayer, D. L., Drews, F. A., Crouch, D. J.
  (2006). A comparison of the cell phone driver and
  the drunk driver. Human Factors, 48(2), 381-391.
• Testa, M., Fillmore, M. T., Jeanette, N., Abbey,
  A., Curtin, J. J., Leonard, K. E., Mariano, K.
  A., Thomas, M. C., Nomensen, K. J., George, W.
  H., VanZile-Tamsen, C., Livingston, J. A., Saenz,
  C., Buck, P. O., Zawacki, T., Parkhill, M. R.,
  Jacques, A. J., Hayman, L. (2006).
  Understanding alcohol expectancy effects
  Revisiting the placebo condition. Alcholism
  Clinical and Experimental Research, 30(2),
  339-348.