Rationale: Alcohol is known to affect most parameters of visually guided sa
ccades, but it is unclear whether intoxicated subjects are able to utilize
temporal or spatial pre-cues to compensate for their alcohol-related slowin
g of saccades. Objectives: We examined the effects of both temporal and spa
tial predictability on gain, latency, and peak velocity in sober and intoxi
cated subjects, e.g. by employing a temporal gap condition. Methods: Saccad
es were recorded with subjects once sober and once intoxicated (0.8 g ethan
ol per kg body weight). Unpredictable and predictable target locations alte
rnated in both the classical (no gap) and temporal gap condition (extinctio
n of fixation point 200 ms before target onset). Results: The gain was only
slightly affected by alcohol, but increased for predictable target locatio
ns. After alcohol consumption, latencies increased, even in the gap conditi
on and for predictable targets. However, intoxicated subjects took relative
ly more benefit from the gap than sober subjects did. In addition, they sho
wed a "pretrial effect", i.e. their latencies depended on the condition for
the previous saccade. For predictable target locations, latencies decrease
d and peak velocities increased both in sober rind intoxicated subjects. Th
us, intoxicated subjects were able to utilize both the spatial predictabili
ty and the temporal gap to speed up their saccades. Conclusions: These resu
lts lead to suggest that as far as the saccadic system is concerned alcohol
predominantly affects the function of the superior colliculus (SC) and/or
the oculomotor regions in the brain stem, either directly or indirectly. On
the other hand, cortical areas assumed to mediate prediction and the gap e
ffect seem to be less affected by alcohol intoxication.