Acute and Chronic Effects of Ethanol on Event-Related Potentials

Abstract

Evoked potentials (EPs) have been widely used to elucidate some of the effects of the acute administration of ethanol on the human central nervous system. Ethanol reduces the amplitude of evoked potential components in the 30–400 msec range regardless of the stimulation modality: somatosensory (Lewis et al., 1970; Porjesz and Begleiter, 1973; Salamy, 1973; Salamy and Williams, 1973; Seales et al., in press), visual (Lewis et al., 1970; Porjesz and Begleiter, 1975; Rhodes et al., 1975; Taghavy et al., 1976) and auditory (Fruhstorfer and Soveri, 1968; Gross et al., 1966; Kopell et al., 1978; Pfefferbaum et al., in press; Roth et al., 1977). This amplitude reduction differs for different components and electrode locations. For example, Porjesz and Begleiter (1975) found that visual EP components in the earlier part of the 50 to 250 msec latency range were less sensitive to ethanol than peaks in the later part of this range. Similar results were also reported by Rhodes et al. (1975) for visual EPs and by Salamy and Williams (1973) for the somatosensory modality. Lewis et al. (1970) and Porjesz and Begleiter (1975) found that EPs recorded from central leads were more sensitive to ethanol than EPs from occipital leads.