THURSDAY, Nov. 18, 2004 (HealthDayNews) -- Even with prolonged sobriety, alcoholics can have problems with visual perception and frontal executive brain function, which can make it hard for them to do things such as read maps or put together puzzles, according to a study in the November issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
Researchers compared 51 recently detoxified alcoholic men with 63 non-alcoholic men. Men in both groups were asked to complete a picture fragment identification task, assessing their ability to identify line drawings of common objects or animals when they were only partially visible.
Compared to the men in the control group, the alcoholic men had to see more of a complete image before they could identify the animals or object, the researchers report.
"Alcoholics often show impairment in visuospatial and visuoperceptual tasks such as copying a complex geometric figure or reading a map. These deficits can impair everyday living," researcher Edith Sullivan, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.
Individuals with these types of deficits "may be unable to accurately assess distance and spatial relations between objects, which could lead, for example, to driving problems," she said.
"To me, the findings suggest that alcoholics will simply have to exert more cognitive energy to complete tasks," added fellow researcher Sara Jo Nixon, a professor and director of the Neurocognitive Laboratory at the University of Kentucky.
"The long-term cost of this expenditure might be seen in any or all of several ways, such as chronic fatigue, lack of vigilance and distractibility," Nixon added.
More information
The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has information about how alcohol damages the brain.
