EFFECTS OF A LOW ALCOHOL DOSE ON STATIC BALANCE, FINE MOTOR-ACTIVITY,AND MENTAL PERFORMANCE

The effects of a single low alcohol dose (men 0.54 g and women 0.44 g alcohol per kg body weight) were measured by static balance, fine moto r activity, and mental performance. In 10 healthy volunteers balance w as registered by a temporally and spatially high resolution platform m easuring the center of foot pressure and a three-dimensional coordinat ion measurement system. Fine motor activity and mental performance wer e tested with selected experiments from the NES2 (Neurobehavioral Eval uation System) neuropsychological test battery. Changes of bipedal and monopedal balance could be detected after the alcohol consumption. Ne ither the fine motor activity nor the mental performance lest demonstr ated significant effects. Thus, the static balance test proved to be a sensitive, fast, and atraumatic method to identify slight neurotoxic disturbances.