Semi-automatic analysis of the ocular pursuit response during ethanol intoxication
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Date
1993
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Abstract
Alcohol disrupts the normal function of the oculomotor system causing involuntary abnormal oculomotor responses, generically labeled as alcohol nystagmus. Four distinct ethanol-induced, ocular responses have been described in humans: positional alcohol nystagmus (PAN); optokinetic alcohol nystagmus (OKAN); alcohol gaze nystagmus (AGN), also called lateral alcohol gaze nystagmus; and pursuit alcohol response (PAR). This study focuses on the effects that ethanol has on eye displacement and velocity during sinusoidal ocular pursuit in order to develop an optimal regression model that describes the horizontal pursuit alcohol response, PAR, and estimates blood alcohol concentration (BAC). The monocular electro-oculogram (EOG) responses of sixteen college-age males were recorded under varying blood alcohol levels at two single-frequency sinusoidal stimuli (0.25 Hz and 0.50 Hz). The pursuit EOG was analyzed to detect and classify fast events and differentiate such events from smooth pursuit and slow phase components of eye movements before calculating important parameters related to eye displacement and velocity. The fast event and smooth pursuit parameters were entered as independent variables in multiple regression models (monocular and combined) to determine the relative and absolute correlations between BAC and oculomotor parameters. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1.) to determine if the alcohol nystagmus phenomenon and the impairment of the central nervous system due to ethanol could be detected by computer during single-frequency ocular pursuit tasks; and 2.) to determine if BAC can be estimated non-invasively from ocular pursuit responses. Three types of models, two monocular models (Right Eye, Left Eye) and one combined model (Left and Right Eyes) under two categories (Relative and Absolute), were developed using the responses from all the subjects. The Relative models were developed with measurements relative to the baseline (i.e., measurements at BAC=0.00%); the Absolute models were developed with the actual measurements...
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Major subject: Bioengineering
Major subject: Bioengineering
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Major bioengineering