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Biomedical subjects

M Vogel-Sprott

Publications and source records attributed to M Vogel-Sprott.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

The transfer of alcohol tolerance, and its relation to reinforcement.

Four groups of five male social drinkers were trained on two different psychomotor tasks, a Pursuit Rotor (PR) and a Tracometer (T). They subsequently attended five drinking sessions where the same dose, 0.66 g absolute alcohol (ab alc)/kg, was administered. During these sessions, groups E and R received 'tolerance training' on the PR task by performing it under drug and receiving 25 cents reinforcement each time their score under alcohol was comparable to their drug-free level of achievement. The other two groups served as controls; group P performed the PR under alcohol but without reinforcement, and group A performed the PR with reinforcement but before alcohol was administered. The reduction of the drug-induced impairment of PR performance from Session 1-5 confirmed that groups E and R displayed significantly more tolerance than the controls. The effect of reinforcement on tolerance transfer to the T task was tested on Session 5. Groups E, P and A received reinforcement for T performance, and group R received no reinforcement. Since the E group displayed significantly more transfer of tolerance than the remaining three groups, the evidence confirmed the prediction that alcohol tolerance acquired via reinforced practice under drug transfers to a new task most readily when this reinforcement is also present.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Alcohol tolerance in social drinkers: operant and classical conditioning effects.

Four groups of males (n = 6 each) were trained on a complex psychomotor task prior to attending five drinking sessions. They performed the task under the same dose (0.84 ml absolute alcohol/kg) on sessions 1-4. On session 5 they received a placebo. During these sessions, the first group (CR) received information and a monetary reward that was contingent on the display of nonimpaired performance under alcohol. The second group (IO) only received information about performance. The third group (NCR) received noncontingent information and reward, administered on a predetermined schedule. The fourth group (NR) received no information or reward for performance. These manipulations were predicted to influence the order of groups with respect to the rate at which tolerance developed over sessions 1-4. The findings confirmed this hypothesis, showing the rate of CR greater than IO greater than NCR greater than NR. The placebo session tested for the classically conditioned compensatory response unattenuated by alcohol. The strength of the response, observed as facilitated performance, was predicted and found to relate to the rate at which tolerance had developed (i.e., CR greater than IO greater than NCR greater than NR). This evidence for operant and classical conditioning effects in alcohol tolerance was considered to suggest that a consideration of their joint effects may be required to understand the contribution of learning to drug tolerance.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

The development of alcohol tolerance: acute recovery as a predictor.

Two experiments examined individual differences in the rate of alcohol tolerance development as a function of acute recovery. Male social drinkers (n = 18) were trained on a complex psychomotor task and subsequently returned for four drinking sessions in which they received the same dose (0.84 ml absolute alcohol/kg) and performed the task at intervals while blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) rose and fell (peak BAC = 77.2 mg/dl). A subject's acute recovery from the impairing effect of alcohol during session 1 was measured by the difference in his performance at the same BAC on the rising and the falling limb of the curve. Rate-of-tolerance development was measured by the rate of change in the subject's average impairment under the alcohol during sessions 1-4. Acute recovery scores in both experiments significantly predicted the rate at which tolerance developed, accounting for 64% of the variance in these scores (P less than 0.0001). Subjects who displayed more acute recovery developed tolerance more quickly. The evidence was considered to imply that the same process may give rise to both acute recovery and tolerance.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Retrograde enhancement by alcohol of delayed free recall performance.

Two experiments are reported in which retrograde enhancement of human memory by alcohol was observed. In both studies male undergraduate volunteers performed an immediate free recall task before and after consuming either alcohol (0.66 abs alc/kg) or placebo. About two hours later, many words as they could delayed free recall was tested when subjects were asked to write down as many words as they could remember from the free recall trials in the session. Subjects given alcohol recalled significantly more words from lists heard before drinking than subjects given placebo; this effect appeared more pronounced for words from the primacy portion of the lists. The possibility that this retrograde enhancement effect is due to alcohol's effects on brain reward systems is raised.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Mental rehearsal of a task under ethanol facilitates tolerance.

Male social drinkers learned a motor-skill task and then drank the same dose of ethanol (0.66 g/kg) on five sessions. Sessions 1 and 5 provided pre- and post-treatment measures of performance under ethanol. During treatment sessions, one group (P) practiced and another (M) mentally rehearsed the task after ethanol was administered. A control group (C) rested. On the posttreatment session, groups P and M did not differ and both were less impaired (i.e., more tolerant) than C. These results suggest that the development of ethanol tolerance is sensitive to the same training procedures which facilitate drug-free learning of a task.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Age, drinking habits and the effects of alcohol.

Some explanations for the common observation that older persons drink less alcohol than younger persons were tested in a sample of 41 men social drinkers aged 19-63. Subjects reported their drinking habits and performed balance beam and bead-stringing tasks under a moderate dose of alcohol (.72 ml absolute alcohol/kg). Self-reports of dose (ml absolute alcohol/kg) on a typical social occasion, and hourly dose (which controlled for individual differences in the duration of these occasions) were found to decline linearly with age. Alcohol absorption and elimination rates in the sample were not significantly related to age. The Ponderal Index (an estimate of percentage of body water in body weight) was negatively correlated with age and with peak blood alcohol levels (BALs). Older subjects had proportionately less body water (i.e., a smaller volume for distribution of alcohol) and obtained higher BALs. When individual differences in BAL were controlled for, the amount of alcohol-induced impairment in task performance was still found to increase significantly with age. This evidence was considered to suggest that a reduction in the volume of distribution for alcohol and an intensified behavioral effect of alcohol may operate jointly to cause older persons to reduce their dose of alcohol on social drinking occasions.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Tolerance development in humans with task practice on different limbs of the blood-alcohol curve.

Three groups of male social drinkers were trained on a pursuit rotor task, and subsequently performed the task during five weekly drinking sessions under the same dose (0.83 ml absolute alcohol/kg). During sessions 1-4, group R (N = 10) performed six trials on the task during rising blood-alcohol concentrations (BAC). Group F (N = 10) performed the same number of trials at comparable falling BAC. Group C (N = 5) received three trials at similar BAC during the rising and the falling portions of the alcohol curve. All groups displayed impaired performance on session 1. By session 4, tolerance was evident in groups C and F, but group R remained impaired. The consequences of these different practice treatments were examined in session 5, where all groups performed the task on the rising and the falling limb of the BAC curve. Groups C and F displayed tolerance on both limbs of the curve whereas the R group was impaired on both. Significant acute recovery was evident in the performance of groups F and R, but not in group C. The evidence was considered to support the hypothesis that a compensatory response, which is strengthened by practice, underlies acute recovery and tolerance.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Control of alcohol tolerance by reinforcement in nonalcoholics.

The development of tolerance to alcohol was examined in two experiments with nonalcoholic drinkers. In both experiments, male undergraduates received pretraining on a pursuit rotor task and were then randomly assigned to either alcohol or placebo conditions. In the first experiment, monetary and performance feedback reinforcement for pursuit rotor performance were provided to both groups over four drinking sessions. In the second experiment, two final drinking sessions were added where no reinforcement was provided to either the alcohol or placebo subjects, and an additional alcohol group received no reinforcement throughout the six drinking sessions. Tolerance to the impairing effects of alcohol on pursuit rotor performance developed only for the reinforced alcohol subjects; withdrawal of reinforcement from tolerant subjects resulted in a return of impaired performance, i.e. tolerance was extinguished. Impairment remained consistently high in the non-reinforced alcohol subjects throughout all six drinking sessions. The results provide support for the learning hypothesis of behavioural tolerance by demonstrating that its acquisition and extinction may be controlled by reinforcement.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Self-evaluation of performance and the ability to discriminate blood alcohol concentrations.

Social drinkers who had been trained to discriminate their blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) tended to predict greater impairment of performance while drinking than did untrained controls, although their actual performance on coding tasks did not differ. It is suggested that training in BAC discrimination may enhance caution and concern about behavioral impairment while drinking.

Alcohol Drinking↗