The effects of alcohol on eye movements during reading.

In an experimental double-blind placebo study of 18 subjects (mean age 26.2 years), we investigated the effect of three blood alcohol concentrations (0.0%, 0.05% and 0.1%) on five visuomotor reading parameters: (1) number of eye fixations per 100 words read; (2) the number of words read per minute; (3) the number of regressions per 100 words read; (4) the saccadic length; (5) the duration of eye fixations. The number of fixations and the duration of eye fixations increased significantly as a function of increased breath alcohol concentration. There were no significant changes in the other visuomotor reading parameters.