1991 Volume 1991 Issue Supplement41 Pages 60-66
Positional alcohol nystagmus (PAN), alcoholic gaze nystagmus (AGN), trunkal ataxia and other oculomotor abnormalities are well-known behavioral changes that follow alcohol ingestion. This paper reviews previous work concerned with these alcohol-induced behavioral changes, including our recent work. We cofirmed that PAN could be elicited by even low blood alcohol concentrations (BAC was 0.02%) and two different types of the form were observed to arise chronologically (PAN I and PAN II). Moreover, a significant linear relationship was found between the intensity of PAN and BAC. When trunkal ataxia was measured with a stabilometer, the circumscribed area of body sway showed the closest correlation with BAC. Other analyses of body sway failed to find any characteristic features of alcohol-induced trunkal ataxia.