Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia.
Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2019 Nov 1;204:107519. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2019.06.021. Epub 2019 Aug 24.
Driving under the influence of alcohol is an ongoing cause of road traffic accidents. The biphasic nature of alcohol effects on subjective experience appears to contribute to the prevalence of drink-driving, as people perceive the declining phase of the BAC curve as recovery from intoxication and are more willing to drive despite significant impairments in objectively measured functions. The present study investigates whether alcohol-induced changes in gaze behaviour can be detected during engagement in a simulated driving task. In a repeated-measures and placebo-controlled design, this study examines the biphasic influence of moderate alcohol intake (0.6 g/kg) on measures of gaze behaviour and simulated driving performance. Twenty-two healthy young adults completed three driving sessions (baseline, ascending and descending) under two conditions (placebo, alcohol) while their eye movements were simultaneously recorded. The results revealed that gaze behaviour as measured by gaze transition entropy (GTE) and stationary gaze entropy (SGE) and driving performance measured by the standard deviation of lateral position (SDLP) of the vehicle, were significantly affected by alcohol across the ascending and descending sessions. The alcohol-induced reduction in GTE with an increase in SGE is discussed as alcohol's impact on top-down modulation of gaze resulting in more dispersed and erratic pattern of visual scanning. The observed changes in gaze behaviour also mediated the influence of alcohol upon driving performance. These results have significant implications for the development of driver monitoring systems that can detect alcohol-induced impairment.
酒精影响下的驾驶行为是道路交通事故的一个持续原因。酒精对主观体验的双相性质似乎导致了酒后驾车的普遍存在，因为人们将 BAC 曲线下降阶段视为醉酒的恢复，并且尽管客观测量的功能有明显的损伤，仍然更愿意开车。本研究调查了在进行模拟驾驶任务时是否可以检测到酒精引起的注视行为变化。在一项重复测量和安慰剂对照设计中，本研究检查了中等酒精摄入（0.6g/kg）对注视行为和模拟驾驶性能的双相影响。22 名健康的年轻成年人在两种条件（安慰剂、酒精）下完成了三个驾驶阶段（基线、上升和下降），同时同时记录他们的眼球运动。结果表明，注视行为转移熵（GTE）和静止注视熵（SGE）的测量以及车辆横向位置标准差（SDLP）的测量均受到酒精的显著影响跨越上升和下降阶段。讨论了 GTE 随 SGE 增加而减少的情况，这是因为酒精对注视的自上而下调节的影响导致视觉扫描模式更加分散和不稳定。观察到的注视行为变化也介导了酒精对驾驶性能的影响。这些结果对开发可以检测酒精引起的损伤的驾驶员监控系统具有重要意义。
