title: Moderate acute alcohol intoxication has minimal effect on surround suppression measured with a motion direction discrimination task.
abstract: A well-studied paradox of motion perception is that, in order to correctly judge direction in high-contrast stimuli, subjects need to observe motion for longer in large stimuli than in small stimuli. This effect is one of several perceptual effects known generally as "surround suppression." It is usually attributed to center-surround antagonism between neurons in visual cortex, believed to be mediated by GABA-ergic inhibition. Accordingly, several studies have reported that this index of surround suppression is reduced in groups known to have reduced GABA-ergic inhibition, including older people and people with schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. In this study, we examined the effect on this index of moderate amounts of ethanol alcohol. Among its many effects on the nervous system, alcohol potentiates GABA-ergic transmission. We therefore hypothesized that it should further impair the perception of motion in large stimuli, resulting in a stronger surround-suppression index. This prediction was not borne out. Alcohol consumption slightly worsened duration thresholds for both large and small stimuli, but their ratio did not change significantly.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Jenny C A
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Read
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Renos
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Georgiou
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brash
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Partow
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yazdani
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Whittaker
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Trevelyan
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Serrano-Pedraza
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009949:Orientation; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ethanol; motion perception; psychophysics; surround suppression; vision