title: Alcohol and sleep restriction combined reduces vigilant attention, whereas sleep restriction alone enhances distractibility.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Alcohol and sleep loss are leading causes of motor vehicle crashes, whereby attention failure is a core causal factor. Despite a plethora of data describing the effect of alcohol and sleep loss on vigilant attention, little is known about their effect on voluntary and involuntary visual attention processes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Repeated-measures, counterbalanced design.
  
  
  METHODS
  Controlled laboratory setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixteen young (18-27 y; M = 21.90 ± 0.60 y) healthy males.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants completed an attention test battery during the afternoon (13:00-14:00) under four counterbalanced conditions: (1) baseline; (2) alcohol (0.05% breath alcohol concentration); (3) sleep restriction (02:00-07:00); and (4) alcohol/sleep restriction combined. This test battery included a Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) as a measure of vigilant attention, and two ocular motor tasks-visually guided and antisaccade-to measure the involuntary and voluntary allocation of visual attention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only the combined condition led to reductions in vigilant attention characterized by slower mean reaction time, fastest 10% responses, and increased number of lapses (P < 0.05) on the PVT. In addition, the combined condition led to a slowing in the voluntary allocation of attention as reflected by increased antisaccade latencies (P < 0.05). Sleep restriction alone however increased both antisaccade inhibitory errors [45.8% errors versus < 28.4% all others; P < 0.001] and the involuntary allocation of attention, as reflected by faster visually guided latencies (177.7 msec versus > 185.0 msec all others) to a peripheral target (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data reveal specific signatures for sleep related attention failure: the voluntary allocation of attention is impaired, whereas the involuntary allocation of attention is enhanced. This provides key evidence for the role of distraction in attention failure during sleep loss.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton. Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton. Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Manousakis
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton. Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fielding
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton. Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000438:Alcohols / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D012438:Saccades / Q000187:drug effects; D012890:Sleep / Q000187:drug effects; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D014851:Wakefulness / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000438:Alcohols
keywords: alcohol; attention; sleep restriction; vigilance