Effects of ethyl alcohol on the electrooculogram and color vision

Abstract

Color vision tests and electrooculography (EOG) were performed in 6 male and 2 female healthy young trichromatic volunteers between 60 and 130 min after finishing consumption of ethyl alcohol leading to blood levels of approximately 0.07% to 0.16%. The average number of errors in the desaturated Panel D-15 arrangement test rose from 0.86 to 2.0; the average error score in the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue test rose from 26 to 79. The axis of errors in both tests was clearly tritanopic and tetartanopic, pointing to a specific effect of ethyl alcohol on the function of blue-sensitive cones and/or their interaction with longer wavelength-sensitive cones. Ethyl alcohol decreased the size of the light-peak, apparently in a dose-dependent fashion, in each of the 16 eyes by values between 3% and 79%. The effect of alcohol on the EOG light peak was stronger between 30 and 95 min (23% decrease in average) than between 95 and 130 min (14% decrease) after the finish of alcohol administration.