Acute Administration of 10 mg Methylphenidate on Cognitive Performance and Visual Scanning in Healthy Adults: Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

IF 1.8 4区医学 Q3 CLINICAL NEUROLOGY

Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental Pub Date : 2025-02-10 DOI:10.1002/hup.70002

Blair Aitken, Luke A. Downey, Serah Rose, Brooke Manning, Thomas R. Arkell, Brook Shiferaw, Amie C. Hayley

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective

To examine the effect of a low dose (10 mg) of methylphenidate on cognitive performance, visuospatial working memory (VSWM) and gaze behaviour capabilities in healthy adults.

Methods

This randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study examined the effects of 10 mg methylphenidate on cognitive performance, VSWM and gaze behaviour. Fixation duration and rate, gaze transition entropy, and stationary gaze entropy were used to quantify visual scanning efficiency in 25 healthy adults (36% female, mean ± SD age = 33.5 ± 7.8 years, BMI = 24.1 ± 2.9 kg/m²). Attention, memory, and reaction time were assessed using the E-CogPro test battery.

Results

Methylphenidate significantly enhanced performance in numeric working memory tasks, reflected by reduced errors and increased accuracy relative to placebo. No significant changes were observed in other cognitive or visual scanning metrics.

Conclusions

A low dose of methylphenidate improves limited domains of psychomotor speed and accuracy but does not affect visual scanning efficiency. This suggests limited usefulness as a general pro-cognitive aid and raises the possibility of a lower threshold of effect for measurable psychostimulant-induced changes to visual scanning behaviour. Further research is needed to explore these potential dose-response relationships and effects across diverse populations.

Trial Registration

ACTRN12620000499987

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来源期刊

Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

4.10

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

期刊介绍： Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental provides a forum for the evaluation of clinical and experimental research on both new and established psychotropic medicines. Experimental studies of other centrally active drugs, including herbal products, in clinical, social and psychological contexts, as well as clinical/scientific papers on drugs of abuse and drug dependency will also be considered. While the primary purpose of the Journal is to publish the results of clinical research, the results of animal studies relevant to human psychopharmacology are welcome. The following topics are of special interest to the editors and readers of the Journal: -All aspects of clinical psychopharmacology- Efficacy and safety studies of novel and standard psychotropic drugs- Studies of the adverse effects of psychotropic drugs- Effects of psychotropic drugs on normal physiological processes- Geriatric and paediatric psychopharmacology- Ethical and psychosocial aspects of drug use and misuse- Psychopharmacological aspects of sleep and chronobiology- Neuroimaging and psychoactive drugs- Phytopharmacology and psychoactive substances- Drug treatment of neurological disorders- Mechanisms of action of psychotropic drugs- Ethnopsychopharmacology- Pharmacogenetic aspects of mental illness and drug response- Psychometrics: psychopharmacological methods and experimental design