The acute effects of ethanol on auditory event-related potentials

The acute effects of ethanol on the ERPs evoked by auditory stimuli were investigated using 0 g/kg, 0.3 g/kg and 0.54 g/kg ethanol dose. Ethanol was administered to 13 subjects single blind and orally in 20% v/v orange juice. Each subject received one of the three doses at three separate testing sessions. The ERPs were monitored at Cz in the 10-20 system in an odd ball paradigm. At the 0.54 g/kg ethanol level, an increase in latency was observed in the N1, P2, N2 components under both stimuli type conditions. The latency and amplitude of the P3 component were affected by ethanol at both dose levels. The amplitude of P3 was reduced and the latency increased in a dose-dependent manner. These characteristics of the P3 were observed under the target stimuli condition. The findings of the study suggested that stimulus attention, as reflected by N1 amplitude, was affected at the moderate ethanol dose level while stimulus categorisation, as reflected by P3 latency, was affected at the low ethanol dose level, with increased effects at the moderate dose level.