title: [Effect of low alcohol concentrations on visual attention in street traffic].
abstract: There is currently public discussion as to whether the legal limit of blood alcohol concentration of drivers might be reduced from 0.8% to 0.5%. To acquire information concerning this problem, we measured temporal parameters of saccades and analysed the overall eye-movement behaviour with various blood ethanol concentrations. Eye movements were registered with an IR eye tracker and analysed while the subjects followed a randomly moving stimulus on a CRT screen and during presentation of a realistic traffic scene of 4 min duration on a TV screen. Alcohol has a significant effect on latency, velocity and accuracy of saccades, even at low concentrations between 0.4% and 0.6%. Because of the altered "gaze activity", the inflow of visual information is reduced in a state of inebriation. Our results are a further argument for reducing the legal limit of blood alcohol concentration to 0.5%.
authors.affiliation: Augenklinik, Universität München.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buser
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lachenmayr
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Priemer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Langnau
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gilg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects*; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D000431:Ethanol / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D012438:Saccades / Q000187:drug effects*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol
vernacular_title: Wirkung niedriger Alkoholkonzentrationen auf das Blickverhalten im Strassenverkehr.