title: Alcohol and the ability to inhibit behavior in men and women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This experiment tested the impairing effect of alcohol on cognitive inhibitory control of behavior in the absence of any motivational consequences for exhibiting or inhibiting a response.
  
  
  METHODS
  Men (n = 24) and women (n = 24) were trained on a computerized "go-stop" task that measured response reaction time (RT) to a go signal and inhibitory control by the number of inhibitions to a randomly occurring stop signal. Equal numbers of men (n = 8) and women (n = 8) were assigned to one of three groups (n = 16), and they performed the task alone in a room under either alcohol (A), placebo (P) or no-treatment control (C) conditions. Blood alcohol concentrations of men and women were matched in Group A by administering 0.62 and 0.54 g/kg of alcohol, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Alcohol impaired inhibitory control and had no significant effect on response RT. Under P and C conditions, no changes in inhibitions or response RT were observed. In addition, no significant gender effects were found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results showed that inhibitory control of behavior was impaired by a moderate dose of alcohol that did not affect response RT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Mulvihill
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Skilling
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vogel-Sprott
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D000431:Ethanol / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000187:drug effects; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol