The impairment caused by alcohol is very often used as a benchmark for driving impairment caused by medicinal drugs or by illicit drugs. Kenntner-Mabiala et al. (2015) developed a representative test course and collected alcohol calibration data in a dynamic driving simulator. The test course comprised highway driving and driving in rural and in urban areas. The aim of the study at hand was to collect alcohol calibration data for the same test course in a stationary driving simulator and to compare this data to the data of the dynamic driving simulator. In accordance with the procedure described by Kenntner-Mabiala et al. (2015), driving performance and driving errors of 24 healthy volunteers driving under placebo as well as with 0.05% and 0.08% BACs were assessed by trained observers (double-blind, randomized, crossover design). Additionally, performance indicators of longitudinal and of lateral control were assessed by the simulator software. Furthermore, all participants completed a set of computer-based tests developed for the assessment of skills related to driving (Vienna test system). Performance measurements allowed to distinguish comparably well between sober and alcoholized driving in both driving simulators. There was no correlation between the performance in the driving simulator and the performance in the computer-based tests under any condition. In summary, the representative test course turned out to be appropriate for the assessment of performance decrements caused by sedating drugs like alcohol, in a dynamic as well as in a stationary driving simulator. Therefore the experimental setup used in this study is also appropriate for further psychopharmacological research. (Author/publisher)
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