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Effects of ethyl alcohol on the electrooculogram and color vision

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Abstract

Color vision tests and electrooculography (EOG) were performed in 6 male and 2 female healthy young trichromatic volunteers between 60 and 130 min after finishing consumption of ethyl alcohol leading to blood levels of approximately 0.07% to 0.16%. The average number of errors in the desaturated Panel D-15 arrangement test rose from 0.86 to 2.0; the average error score in the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue test rose from 26 to 79. The axis of errors in both tests was clearly tritanopic and tetartanopic, pointing to a specific effect of ethyl alcohol on the function of blue-sensitive cones and/or their interaction with longer wavelength-sensitive cones.

Ethyl alcohol decreased the size of the light-peak, apparently in a dose-dependent fashion, in each of the 16 eyes by values between 3% and 79%. The effect of alcohol on the EOG light peak was stronger between 30 and 95 min (23% decrease in average) than between 95 and 130 min (14% decrease) after the finish of alcohol administration.

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Zrenner, E., Riedel, K.G., Adamczyk, R. et al. Effects of ethyl alcohol on the electrooculogram and color vision. Doc Ophthalmol 63, 305–312 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00220220

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