SIMPLE REACTION-TIME EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS - EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL AND SLEEP-DEPRIVATION

The effects of two levels of alcohol intoxication and 30 hr of sleep d eprivation on visual event-related potential (ERP) waveforms concomita nt to simple reaction time (RT) were examined in 54 normal male subjec ts. In a previous study, we reported that alcohol and sleep deprivatio n each increased RT. At a 0.05 breath alcohol concentration (BAC), the combined treatments produced an additive increase in RT, whereas at a 0.08 BAC the combined treatments produced no increase beyond that see n with each alone. In this study we present the ERP findings. Sleep de privation alone increased the latency of a 150 msec negative component (Nl) of the ERP. Alcohol increased the latency of a 250 msec negative component (N2), but only in the absence of sleep deprivation. Further more, this increased latency of N2 was correlated with RT measures. Th ese results suggested that sleep deprivation slowed initial stimulus d etection, whereas alcohol slowed later processing and response activat ion.