Gender effect on the right-left discrimination task in a sample of heroin-dependent patients

• Published in: Psychopharmacologia 2005-10, Vol.181 (4), p.735-740
• Main Authors: NING LIU, BO LI, WILSON, Fraser A. W, YUANYE MA, XINTIAN HU
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Alzheimer's disease; Biological and medical sciences; Cognitive ability; Discrimination Learning - drug effects; Drug abuse; Drug addiction; Female; Functional Laterality; Gender differences; Heroin; Heroin - toxicity; Heroin Dependence - psychology; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Mental disorders; Orientation - drug effects; Parkinson's disease; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychomotor Performance - drug effects; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Sex Factors; Techniques and methods
• ISSN: 0033-3158; 1432-2072
• DOI: 10.1007/s00213-005-0031-6

Discriminating right from left is an everyday cognitive ability. Repeated exposure to certain drugs, such as heroin, can produce poor performance on many cognitive tasks. However, it is yet unclear whether drug abuse impairs the ability of right-left discrimination. The aim of the present study is to examine whether the spatial ability measured by the right-left discrimination task can be affected by heroin abuse and whether such drug effect, if it exists, is gender related. A paper-and-pen test was used. The test consists of line drawings of a person with no arm, one arm, or both arms crossing the vertical body axis of the figure. The line drawings are viewed from the back, from the front, or randomly alternating between the back and front drawings. The subjects' task is to mark which is the right or left hand in the figure as fast as possible. A main finding in this study was that the ability to discriminate between left and right in visual space was impaired in heroin-dependent patients. Especially, heroin-dependent females performed poorer than control females in all conditions but heroin-dependent males only performed poorly in part of conditions. Recent heroin abuse impairs the ability of right-left discrimination and such impairment is gender related: heroin-dependent females demonstrated greater performance deficits than males.