Alcohol retards visual recovery from glare by hampering target acquisition

ADAMS and Brown¹ showed that relatively small doses of alcohol produced "large, significant, dose-related increases in the time required to recover foveal contrast sensitivity following bright light exposure". As this effect of alcohol may be directly related to industrial and to car driving safety², we set out to ascertain its precise origin. Adams and Brown concluded tentatively that the alcohol exerted its effect at the retinal level. The experiments presented here, however, implicate non-retinal mechanisms, as alcohol delays recovery from glare only when observers have difficulty localising or fixating the test stimulus.