[The effects of bromazepam on the performance of a sensory-motor activity: an electroencephalographic study].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of using bromazepam on the relative power in alpha while performing a typing task. Bearing in mind the particularities of each brain hemisphere, our hypothesis was that measuring the relative power would allow us to investigate the effects of bromazepam on specific areas of the cortex. More specifically, we expected to observe different patterns of powers in sensory-motor integration, attention and activation processes.


METHODS
The sample was made up of 39 subjects (15 males and 24 females) with a mean age of 30 +/- 10 years. The control (placebo) and experimental (3 mg and 6 mg of bromazepam) groups were trained in the typing task with a randomised double-blind model.


RESULTS
A three-way ANOVA and Scheffé test were used to analyse interactions between the factors condition and moment, and between condition and sector.


CONCLUSIONS
The doses used in this study facilitated motor performance of the typing task. In this study, the use of the drug did not prevent learning of the task, but it did appear to concentrate mental effort on more restricted and specific aspects of typing. It also seemed to influence the rhythm and effectiveness of the operations performed during mechanisms related to the encoding and storage of new information. Likewise, a predominance of activity was observed in the left (dominant) frontal area in the 3 mg bromazepam group, which indicates that this dose of the drug affords the subject a greater degree of directionality of cortical activity for planning and performing the task.
Machado
D
D
Laboratório de Mapeamento Cerebral e Integração Sensório-motor, UFRJ/IPUB, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Instituto de Psiquiatria, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
Bastos
V H
VH
Cunha
M
M
Velasques
B
B
Machado
S
S
Basile
L
L
Cagy
M
M
Piedade
R
R
Ribeiro
P
P
D000328:Adult; D001960:Bromazepam / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*
D001960:Bromazepam