title: Acute ethanol effects on sensory/motor function in baboons with a history of chronic ethanol ingestion.
abstract: Baboons with a history of chronic, daily ethanol ingestion were subsequently studied under conditions that assessed the effects of acute oral self-administration of ethanol on auditory and visual threshold functions and reaction times. During the post-chronic experiment reported herein, the animals consumed specific amounts of ethanol twice weekly (0.1, 0.32, 1.0 or 1.3 g/kg), following which they immediately performed psychophysical tests designed to assess ethanol's effects on sensory thresholds and reaction times. Clear, dose-related increases in reaction times were observed following ethanol doses greater than 0.32 g/kg. Trends within individual threshold functions were consistent with systematic changes in auditory and visual threshold sensitivities of 1-3 dB at the high ethanol doses. Reaction time increases ranged from 25 to 180 ms above baseline levels at the highest dose (a 15% average increase). These general findings however, were in contrast to data obtained in the same animals under conditions of daily, chronic ethanol administration which characteristically showed greater sensory/motor effects of up to twice the magnitude of those observed with single doses.
authors.affiliation: Deparment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Hienz
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Bowers
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Spear
authors.forename: J V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Brady
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000503:physiopathology; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000818:Animals; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D008297:Male; D010215:Papio; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*