Motor functioning and alcohol dependence.
BACKGROUND
Autopsy and neuroimaging research in stably abstinent alcoholics illuminated structural and functional abnormalities in brain areas that organize and coordinate motor functioning. Researchers that used behavioural tasks to measure motor functioning found that abstinent alcoholics perform worse than healthy controls. These researchers however did not analyze timed responses into their cognitive and motor components. They thus were unable to decide which aspects of information processing are impaired. We here used a Fitts' task to examine differences in cognitive and motor components between abstinent alcoholics and healthy controls.


METHODS
Fifty-two abstinent alcoholics and 52 healthy controls participated in this research design. Fine motor functioning was assessed by means of the Fitts' task.


RESULTS
Abstinent alcoholics needed more time to perform timed responses than healthy controls. As both reaction and movement times were higher in abstinent alcoholics, both cognitive and motor processes seem to be impaired. When the task became more difficult (small targets instead of large targets) abstinent alcoholics needed proportionally more time to give the correct response than healthy controls. This phenomenon solely applied to movement times.


CONCLUSIONS
These research data indicate that abstinent alcoholics are somewhat impaired on a behavioral level. The execution of timed responses indeed was lengthier in abstinent alcoholics than in healthy controls. As both cognitive and motor processes were impaired, we here assume that both central and peripheral processes are affected by progressive alcohol intake. Abstinent alcoholics also have more difficulties to adapt their motor responses to changing task conditions.
De Wilde
Bieke
B
Psychiatrisch Centrum Broeders Alexianen, Boechout, Belgium. biekedewilde@hotmail.com
Dom
Geert
G
Hulstijn
Wouter
W
Sabbe
Bernard
B
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013695:Temperance / Q000523:psychology*