2017年第二届曲阜视觉科学会议知识库

Alcohol intoxication is increasingly recognized as a problem in current cultures and has been associated with significant impairments across diverse functional domains. High-dose alcohol intoxication (a.k.a. binge drinking) can lead to aversive social and legal consequences and the behavioral aspects of this phenomenon were reported on extensively. Although the effects of binge drinking on cognitive functions are well-known and have extensively been described, the effects of high-dose alcohol intake on perceptual level are less studied and the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms remain to be uncovered. To close this gap, we used both behavioral measure (center-surround motion repulsion random-dot-patterns) and neurophysiological computational model to investigate how visual information processes alter under the influence of high-dose alcohol intoxication. Using a within-subject design, we asked young healthy participants (n = 28) to complete a visual motion direction discrimination task once sober, once placebo and once intoxicated (approximately 1.2‰). We found that the effect of surround context on the perception of center motion direction are similar in sober and placebo states as anticipated, but during intoxication, contextual modulations was significantly stronger compared to sober and placebo conditions. To explore the plausible underlying network changes during intoxication, we modeled motion repulsion effects by including the spatial lateral inhibition of neuronal processing. Modelling results shown a maintained local inhibition but an increased lateral inhibition in the intoxicated state.Based on these results, we demonstrate that ‘Binge drinking’ resulted in changes of visual motion information processing and increased lateral inhibition might be the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms.