The Effects of Modafinil on Behavioural and ERP Measures of Attention

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event The Effects of Modafinil on Behavioural and ERP Measures of Attention Caitlin Harris1, Oliver De Angelis1, Raimondo Bruno1 and Allison Matthews1* 1 University of Tasmania, Division of Psychology, School of Medicine, Australia Aim: Modafinil is a wakefulness-promoting medication that is increasingly used off-label for cognitive enhancement in healthy persons, despite conflicting empirical support. The present study aimed to investigate the effects modafinil (200mg) on behavioural and event-related potential (ERP) measures of attentional processing. Specifically, the study aimed to examine the effects of modafinil on alerting, orienting and executive control using an attentional network task (ANT). Method: In this double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled study, healthy non-sleep deprived males (N=18) completed the ANT at baseline and at 2.5 hours post-ingestion. Congruent or incongruent flanker targets were preceded by no-cue, by a central alerting cue, or by an informative spatial cue. Participants also completed subjective ratings of mood, fatigue, performance, and drug effects. Results: Modafinil administration resulted in a reduction in reaction time (RT) at post-ingestion in comparison to placebo. There was evidence for enhancement in both tonic and phasic alerting, as indicated by reduced RT and enhanced N1 amplitude for no cue and central cue trials. There was no evidence of differential enhancement of the orienting network following informative spatial cues. Enhancement of RT was also greater for incongruent relative to congruent flanker targets, suggesting behavioural improvement in executive control. Conclusions: There was a small effect of modafinil on tonic/phasic alerting and executive control in healthy males. Improved alerting was indexed by a neural measure of early focal attention (N1 amplitude). However, these effects may have occurred through preventing fatigue rather than improving specific attentional mechanisms. In addition, the small effect sizes may limit the practical implications of results, and comparison with other stimulants such as caffeine is warranted. Further analysis is required to examine the effect of modafinil on neural correlates of executive control. Keywords: Modafinil, ERPs (Event-Related Potentials), Attention, Attentional Network Test, cognitive enhancement Conference: ASP2016 - The 26th Annual Meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Adelaide Australia, Adelaide,SA, Australia, 12 Dec - 14 Dec, 2016. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Abstract (general) Citation: Harris C, De Angelis O, Bruno R and Matthews A (2016). The Effects of Modafinil on Behavioural and ERP Measures of Attention. Conference Abstract: ASP2016 - The 26th Annual Meeting of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Adelaide Australia. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2016.221.00003 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 21 Nov 2016; Published Online: 05 Dec 2016. * Correspondence: Dr. Allison Matthews, University of Tasmania, Division of Psychology, School of Medicine, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia, Allison.Matthews@utas.edu.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Caitlin Harris Oliver De Angelis Raimondo Bruno Allison Matthews Google Caitlin Harris Oliver De Angelis Raimondo Bruno Allison Matthews Google Scholar Caitlin Harris Oliver De Angelis Raimondo Bruno Allison Matthews PubMed Caitlin Harris Oliver De Angelis Raimondo Bruno Allison Matthews Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.