Do intoxicated witnesses produce poor facial composite images?

The effect of alcohol intoxication on witness memory and performance has been the subject of research for some time, however, whether intoxication affects facial composite construction has not been investigated. Intoxication was predicted to adversely affect facial composite construction. Thirty-two participants were allocated to one of four beverage conditions consisting of factorial combinations of alcohol or placebo at face encoding, and later construction. Participants viewed a video of a target person and constructed a composite of this target the following day. The resulting images were presented as a full face composite, or a part face consisting of either internal or external facial features to a second sample of participants who provided likeness ratings as a measure of facial composite quality. Intoxication at face encoding had a detrimental impact on the quality of facial composites produced the following day, suggesting that alcohol impaired the encoding of the target faces. The common finding that external compared to internal features are more accurately represented was demonstrated, even following alcohol at encoding. This finding was moderated by alcohol and target face gender such that alcohol at face encoding resulted in reduced likeness of external features for male composite faces only. Moderate alcohol intoxication impairs the quality of facial composites, adding to existing literature demonstrating little effect of alcohol on line-up studies. The impact of intoxication on face perception mechanisms, and the apparent narrowing of processing to external face areas such as hair, is discussed in the context of alcohol myopia theory

Correlation between driving-related skill and alcohol use in young-adults from six European countries: the TEN-D by Night Project

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Only few studies with small experimental samples investigated the impact of psychoactive substances on driving performance. We conducted a multicenter international cross-sectional study to evaluate the correlation between alcohol use and driving-related skill as measured by brake reaction time (RT).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Before and after the entrance into randomly selected recreational sites from six European countries, all subjects aged 16-35 years, owning a driver license, were asked to compile a structured socio-demographic questionnaire and measure RT (SimuNomad3 driving simulator), breath alcohol concentration (BAC; Drager Alcoltest), and drug use (Oratect III saliva test, only at the exit). Mixed regression modeling was used to evaluate the independent association between RT and alcohol concentration or drug use.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Before the entrance into the recreational site, 4534 subjects completed all assessments and composed the final sample. Their mean age was 23.1 ± 4.2y; 68.3% were males; 54.7% had BAC > 0 g/L (assumed alcoholics); 7.5% declared illegal drug assumption (mostly cannabis). After the exit, 3019 also completed the second assessment: 71.7% showed BAC > 0 g/L. Controlling for age, gender, educational level, occupation, driver license years, and drug use, BAC was positively associated with RT, achieving significance, however, only when BAC was higher than 0.49 g/L. Significant interaction terms were found between BAC and female gender or drug use, with highest RTs (> 1 sec.) recorded among drug users with BAC > = 1 g/L.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This field study confirms previous experimental data on the negative impact of alcohol use on driving-related skill, supporting regulations and educational campaigns aimed at discouraging driving after consumption of psychoactive substances.</p

The functional anatomy of semantic retrieval is influenced by gender, menstrual cycle, and sex hormones

This study examines the neurobiology of semantic retrieval and describes the influence of gender, menstrual cycle, and sex hormones on semantic networks. Healthy right-handed subjects (12 men, 12 women) were investigated with 3T-fMRI during synonym generation. Behavioral performance and sex hormone levels were assessed. Women were examined during the early follicular and midluteal cycle phase. The activation pattern in all groups involved left frontal and temporal as well as bilateral medial frontal, cingulate, occipital, basal ganglia, and cerebellar regions. Men showed greater left frontal activation than women in both menstrual cycle phases. Women yielded high correlations of left prefrontal activation with estradiol in the midluteal phase and with progesterone in both phases. Testosterone levels correlated highly with left prefrontal activation in all three groups. In all, we describe a cerebral network involved in semantic processing and demonstrate that it is significantly affected by gender and sex steroid hormones