[The effect of alcohol (ethanol) on the reactions of the vestibular system]

The influence of ethanol upon dynamics of rotatory (RN) and post-rotatory nystagmus (PRN), trunk pose-tonic reflexes and their vegetative (cardiac, respiratory) components was studied in chronic experiments on rabbits with the help of electronystagmo- and electromyography. Ethanol was administered once intra-abdominally (1 g/kg) and one time a day during 30 days. Alcohol concentration in blood was determined by gas-and-fluid chromatography. The animal which were given isotonic solution of sodium chloride in the same doses and quantities served as a control group. It was established that vestibular oculomotor reflexes are mainly facilitated in an acute period of ethanol administration, then their inhibition occurs. Besides, the changes of PRN are stronger expressed than those of RN. Labyrinth pose-tonic reflexes are more often inhibited under the influence of ethanol; their strongest depression was observed during the first hour after ethanol administration and on the 15th day of chronic alcoholization. In alcoholization the changes of vestibular-vegetative reaction occur; primary short-term weakening of vestibular influences upon cardiac rhythm and respiration with their subsequent increasing.