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The effect of lorazepam on memory and event‐related potentials in heavy and light social drinkers
Author(s) -
NICHOLS JENNIFER M.,
MARTIN FRANCES
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1996.tb01070.x
Subject(s) - lorazepam , psychology , event related potential , cognition , latency (audio) , social cognition , task (project management) , event (particle physics) , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , audiology , neuroscience , psychiatry , medicine , electrical engineering , engineering , physics , management , quantum mechanics , economics
To investigate the effects of heavy social drinking on sober cognitive processing, event‐related potentials were recorded from 13 heavy social drinkers and 13 light social drinkers in the presence and absence of a pharmacological challenge (i.e., lorazepam). Event‐related potentials were elicited by a task reuqiring continuous recognition memory for visually presented words. The heavy social drinkers exhibited shorter P2 latencies than the light in the task) versus “new” words. Lorazepam increased motor reaction time to correctly identified old words and produced a deficit in recognition memory only in the light social drinkers. Light social drinkers had an increased P300 latency anda larger P300 amplitude to new words in the lorazepam treatment. The differences in cognitive functioning evident between heavy and light social drinkers were reflected in event‐related potential deviations and appear to indicate a tolerance in heavy social drinkers to the effects of lorazepam.