Schweizer Tom A, Vogel-Sprott Muriel
Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2008 Jun;16(3):240-50. doi: 10.1037/1064-1297.16.3.240.
Much research on the effects of a dose of alcohol has shown that motor skills recover from impairment as blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) decline and that acute tolerance to alcohol impairment can develop during the course of the dose. Comparable alcohol research on cognitive performance is sparse but has increased with the development of computerized cognitive tasks. This article reviews the results of recent research using these tasks to test the development of acute tolerance in cognitive performance and recovery from impairment during declining BACs. Results show that speed and accuracy do not necessarily agree in detecting cognitive impairment, and this mismatch most frequently occurs during declining BACs. Speed of cognitive performance usually recovers from impairment to drug-free levels during declining BACs, whereas alcohol-increased errors fail to diminish. As a consequence, speed of cognitive processing tends to develop acute tolerance, but no such tendency is shown in accuracy. This "acute protracted error" phenomenon has not previously been documented. The findings pose a challenge to the theory of alcohol tolerance on the basis of physiological adaptation and raise new research questions concerning the independence of speed and accuracy of cognitive processes, as well as hemispheric lateralization of alcohol effects. The occurrence of alcohol-induced protracted cognitive errors long after speed returned to normal is identified as a potential threat to the safety of social drinkers that requires urgent investigation.
许多关于一定剂量酒精影响的研究表明，随着血液酒精浓度（BACs）下降，运动技能会从损伤中恢复，并且在该剂量过程中会产生对酒精损伤的急性耐受性。关于酒精对认知表现影响的类似研究较少，但随着计算机化认知任务的发展有所增加。本文回顾了最近使用这些任务进行的研究结果，以测试认知表现中急性耐受性的发展以及在BACs下降期间从损伤中恢复的情况。结果表明，在检测认知损伤时，速度和准确性不一定一致，这种不匹配最常发生在BACs下降期间。在BACs下降期间，认知表现的速度通常会从损伤恢复到无药物水平，而酒精导致的错误却没有减少。因此，认知处理速度倾向于产生急性耐受性，但准确性方面没有这种趋势。这种“急性持续性错误”现象以前没有被记录过。这些发现对基于生理适应的酒精耐受性理论提出了挑战，并提出了关于认知过程速度和准确性的独立性以及酒精作用的半球侧化的新研究问题。在速度恢复正常很久之后酒精诱导的持续性认知错误的出现被确定为对社交饮酒者安全的潜在威胁，需要紧急调查。
