MOTOR PERFORMANCE IN DETOXIFIED ALCOHOLICS

Detoxified male and female alcoholics (aged 20-49 years) and controls, performed a series of 15-sec target-tapping tasks. Overall, the alcoholics were slower and made more errors than the controls, although the pattern of deficit differed for male and females. Accuracy, but not speed was impaired in male alcoholics. The production of undershoot errors was increased more in alcoholics than nonalcoholics in targets of narrower width, whereas the production of overshoot errors was increased more in alcoholics as target separation decreased. Female alcoholics displayed impairment in speed of movement, but not accuracy. However, both alcoholic groups displayed elevated error rates for the more difficult targets. It is thus possible that detoxified alcoholics might mimic the speed functions of nonalcoholic individuals at the occasional cost of an erroneous repsonse at a difficult target.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/01456008
• Corporate Authors:

  Marcel Dekker, Incorporated

  270 Madison Avenue
  New York, NY  United States  10016
• Authors:
  • York, J L
  • Biederman, I
• Publication Date: 1988

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 119-124
• Serial:
  • Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
  • ISSN: 0145-6008
  • EISSN: 1530-0277
  • Serial URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1530-0277

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accuracy; Alcohol use; Alcoholic beverages; Alcoholism; Driver performance; Drivers; Drug addiction; Drugs; Drunk drivers; Drunk driving; Females; Impaired drivers; Males; Motor skills; Personnel performance
• Old TRIS Terms: Detoxification; Driver impairment
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00489496
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 30 1989 12:00AM