Neurophysiological Correlates of Moderate Alcohol Use in Older Adults.

描述（由申请人提供）：传统观点和大量科学证据表明，摄入少量酒精可为用户带来各种健康益处，包括降低冠状动脉疾病、2型糖尿病和某些类型癌症的风险。鉴于这种情况，通常的医疗实践是建议那些已经饮酒的人继续饮酒，尽管适度。尽管这种做法具有直观的意义，但即使是小剂量的急性酒精也已被证明对使用者的神经认知和精神运动表现具有微妙但可测量的影响，这可能会给该个体带来一些风险。来自我们实验室的初步证据表明，这些适度饮酒事件对心理和神经认知表现的影响可能因个体的年龄以及其他个体因素而异。拟议的项目通过测量与急性适度饮酒相关的电生理和心理变化并比较两个相关年龄组之间的结果来扩展这些初步发现：年轻人（25-40岁）和老年人（55- 70岁）。虽然不是本提案的主要重点，但也将进行探索性分析，以说明潜在的性别影响。为此，我们打算为这项研究招募同等数量的男子和妇女。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Conventional wisdom and a substantial body of scientific evidence suggests that the intake of small amounts of alcohol confers a variety of health benefits to the user including reduced risk of coronary artery disease, type-2 diabetes, and some types of cancer. Given that this is the case, it is common medical practice to recommend to those individuals who already drink alcohol that they continue to drink, albeit moderately. Although this practice makes intuitive sense, even small acute doses of alcohol have been shown to have subtle, yet measurable effects on neurocognition and psychomotor performance in the user which may confer some risk to that individual. Preliminary evidence from our laboratory suggests the effect of these moderate drinking episodes on psychomotor and neurocognitive performance may differd epending on the individual's age as well as a host of other individual factors. The proposed project extends these preliminary findings through measurement of electrophysiological and psychomotor changes associated with acute moderate drinking and comparing results between two relevant age groups: younger adults (25-40 years of age) and older adults (55- 70 years of age). Although not the primary focus of this proposal, exploratory analyses characterizing potential gender effects will also be conducted. To this end, we intend to recruit equal numbers of men and women for the study.