Efeitos da ingestão aguda moderada de álcool nos movimentos oculares: um estudo duplo-cego, placebocontrolado

Abstract

Alcohol is one of the most widely consumed psychoactive substances worldwide and the negative impacts related alcohol use has become a problem of global public health. Research suggests that alcohol use can cause impairments to various cognitive and perceptual processes. Specifically, there is evidence that acute ingestion of alcohol can change the eye movements. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of moderate acute alcohol intake in eye movements, having as parameter the concentration of 0.08% BAC. In a double-blind, placebo controlled design, 20 volunteers participated in both conditions: Experimental (0.08%) and control (placebo) in order counterbalanced. We used the Eye Tracker Tobii TX300 equipment for tracking eye movement, and as a stimulus, Visual Maze Test. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20, being conducted normality test, descriptive and inferential analysis. Analysis with paired t test showed significant differences in the pattern of eye movements between the two conditions. The results indicated significant differences in the parameters of eye movements: fixation number (p = 0.001, r = 0.713) and fixation duration average (p = 0.004, r = 0.597) and total (p = 0.026, r = 0.485), saccade number (p = 0.001, r = 0.728) and saccade total duration (p = 0.028, r = 0.478) and total time of Visual maze test performance (p = 0.014, r = 0.525). However, no significant difference in the pupil diameter between conditions. In addition, Analysis of Variance of two factors mixed showed no interaction effect between the independent variables alcohol and sex. These results suggest that alcohol can cause impairments in eye movement pattern in young adults, which may cause impairments in processing of visual information.