Innovation and Validation of Neuropsychopharmacological Testing Methods for the Assessment of Memory, Attention and Cognition in Human Participants

Abstract

To meet the challenges of time searching for the new method for neuropsychopharmacology is still an ongoing process. In this experiment, we proposed and validated three neuropsychopharmacological testing methods, which are Matching Capacity (MC), Dissimilarity Identification (DI) and Sense Making (SM) tests for the estimation of memory, attention and cognition respectively in healthy aged human participants. The purpose of this experiment was to generate more effective testing methods for the determination of memory, attention and cognition in human. To endorse proposed methods a randomized double blind placebo controlled clinical trial was conducted among healthy aged human participants between the period of December 2015 and February 2016. The experiment was conducted at Gazipur Sadar, Gazipur-1703, Dhaka, Bangladesh and the experiment center was the Department of Pharmacy, Southeast University, Dhaka-1213, Bangladesh. In this experiment, 60 healthy male participants between the age of 42 to 50 years were selected and divided into 4 groups with 15 participants in each by simple randomization process. Ginkgo biloba standardized extract’s capsule (Giloba?) and Bacopa monnieri standardized extract’s syrup (Monera?) were used as standard. Psyllium seed husk (i.e., seed of the Plantago ovata) was incorporated in the hard gelatin capsule shell (size 0) to prepare capsule and used as a placebo control of the capsule (PCC). Excipients of oral liquid preparation of vitamin were used to prepare syrup and used as a placebo control of the syrup (PCS). The treatment procedure for group 1 was Ginkgo biloba standardized extract’s capsule (120 mg/capsule), 3 times daily for 21 days; group 2 was treated with Bacopa monnieri standardized extract’s syrup (1.21 g/5 ml), 2 teaspoonfuls, 3 times daily for 21 days. Psyllium seed husk’s capsule and excipients of oral liquid vitamin’s syrup were used as placebo control (PC) for group 3 and group 4 and administered in the similar manner of group 1 and group 2, respectively. Administration of Ginkgo biloba (GB) and Bacopa monnieri (BM) standardized extracts for successive days significantly increased the memory, attention and cognition of the participants with respect to PC groups. In the MC test, treatment with GB extract markedly (P < 0.05) increased the memory of the participants on 21st day with respect to PCC group. On the other hand administration of BM extract remarkably (P < 0.01) increased the memory of the participants on 14th day in comparison with PCS group. For DI test, administration of GB extract noticeably (P < 0.01, P < 0.05) increased the attention of the participants on 14th and 21st day as compared to that of PCC group. Conversely BM extract significantly (P < 0.05, P < 0.01) increased the attention of the participants on 7th, 14th and 21st day with regard to PCS group. In the SM test, administration of GB extract noticeably (P < 0.05) increased the cognition of the participants on 7th and 21st day in comparison with PCC group. BM extract administration considerably (P < 0.01) increased cognition of the participants on 14th and 21st day related to the PCS groups. The experiment demonstrates that MC, DI and SM tests clearly exposed the memory, attention and cognition enhancing activity of the GB and BM standardized extracts in healthful aged human participants respectively. Therefore, the proposed method can be used for the fortitude of memory, attention and cognition in human and will generate a landmark in the sphere of neuroscience.