Ethanol reduces rCBF activation of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during a verbal fluency task

In English Measurements of regional cerebral blood flow were made in 20 healthy young male subjects during sobriety and inebriation (0.06 % blood alcohol) during rest and during performance of a word fluency test. Word production was decreased during inebriation. The activation within the frontotemporal part of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was preserved during intoxication. During inebriation no activation response to the word fluency test was seen in the anterior prefrontal part of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This area showed a marked activation response during sobriety. Hemispheric function and specialization seems thus to be adversely affected by ethanol.