Attentional effects of caffeine in man: comparison with drugs acting upon performance.
The aim of this study was to observe if a method useful for measuring attentional effects could be applied in testing the differential effects of caffeine, the beta-stimulant salbutamol, and the beta-blocker propranolol. Caffeine (300 mg) was administered to a sample of 19 normal subjects compared to two samples of 40 controls. Caffeine was found to increase attention and vigilance by augmenting the number of repetitions of responses to a verbal stimulus in a free word association test. This pattern was also seen with salbutamol and propranolol, but to a lesser degree.
Pons
L
L
Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Université de Caen, France.
Trenque
T
T
Bielecki
M
M
Moulin
M
M
Potier
J C
JC
D000420:Albuterol / Q000494:pharmacology; D001143:Arousal / Q000187:drug effects*; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects*; D002110:Caffeine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D011433:Propranolol / Q000494:pharmacology; D014936:Word Association Tests
D002110:Caffeine; D011433:Propranolol; D000420:Albuterol