The influence of drinking on physiological tremor and reaction time.

Abstract

Tremor is an invisible mechanical vibration observed on parts of the body. It is classified into physiological and pathological tremors. It was reported that an oral dose of alcohol could decrease the amplitude of pathological tremor. Usually, drunken level is estimated by the alcohol concentration in expiration. But, physiological tremor can be used to estimate drunken level easily. In this paper, power spectrum of the physiological tremor of index finger and some reaction time of the pedal operations of imitated car driving were measured every 15 minutes for 3 hours under drinking and non-drinking conditions. Subjects were 10 males aged 20 to 25 years. Under drinking condition, the total power values of tremor from 15 to 180 minutes after drinking were smaller than that of before drinking. It is clear that the influence of drinking could be estimated by the total power of the physiological tremor, even when the significant difference of the influence of drinking on reaction time was not found.