A twin study of psychomotor and physiological responses to an acute dose of alcohol

A battery of psychomotor and physiological measures was administered to 206 pairs of twins before alcohol and then three times at hourly intervals after they ingested a standard dose of ethanol. Performance on motor coordination, standing steadiness, pursuit rotor, arithmetic computations, and react...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavior genetics 1985-07, Vol.15 (4), p.305-347
Main Authors: MARTIN, N. G, OAKESHOTT, J. G, GIBSON, J. B, STARMER, G. A, PERL, J, WILKS, A. V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Alcohol Drinking
Alcoholism and acute alcohol poisoning
Biological and medical sciences
Blood Pressure - drug effects
Ethanol - pharmacology
Female
Humans
Kinetics
Male
Medical sciences
Motor Activity - drug effects
Pregnancy
Pulse - drug effects
Skin Temperature - drug effects
Toxicology
Twins
Twins, Dizygotic
Twins, Monozygotic
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Summary:A battery of psychomotor and physiological measures was administered to 206 pairs of twins before alcohol and then three times at hourly intervals after they ingested a standard dose of ethanol. Performance on motor coordination, standing steadiness, pursuit rotor, arithmetic computations, and reaction-time tasks deteriorated after alcohol, but decrements on the five tasks were generally independent of each other. Measurements of blood pressure, pulse rate, and skin temperature were all elevated following alcohol intake, but these responses were also uncorrelated. The variance in many of these measures increased after alcohol. An analysis of covariance structure revealed that most of this additional variance exposed by alcohol was genetic in origin, particularly for standing steadiness, pursuit rotor, arithmetic computation, and pulse rate.
ISSN:0001-8244
1573-3297
DOI:10.1007/bf01070893