Effect of ethyl alcohol on visual evoked potentials.

Effects of ethyl alcohol evoked potentials were studied in 12 healthy volunteers. Alcohol significantly reduced the amplitude and prolonged the latency of the N2-P2 components of the centrally derived flash evoked potential. Amplitude attenuation was positively correlated with alcohol doses of 0.8 and 1.2 g/kg. Analysis of subsets of data revealed the amplitude attenuation to be time related and not present in the initial five responses after alcohol. Possible neurochemical mechanisms related to the amplitude attenuation are discussed.