Influence of caffeine on selective attention in well-rested and fatigued subjects

Effects of caffeine were studied in a visual focused selective search task in well‐rested and fatigued subjects. A dose of 200 + 50 mg caffeine or placebo, dissolved in decaffeinated coffee, was administered in a double‐blind and deceptive fashion. The task was to detect a target letter on one diago...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychophysiology 1994-11, Vol.31 (6), p.525-534
Main Authors: LORIST, MONICQUE M., SNEL, JAN, KOK, ALBERT, MULDER, GIJSBERTUS
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Arousal - drug effects
Attention - drug effects
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Caffeine
Caffeine - pharmacology
Coffee
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Double-Blind Method
Evoked Potentials, Visual - drug effects
Fatigue - psychology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Male
Memory search
Mental Recall - drug effects
Neurotransmission and behavior
Orientation - drug effects
Pattern Recognition, Visual - drug effects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Selective attention
State of the subject
Target detection
Visual event-related potentials
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Summary:Effects of caffeine were studied in a visual focused selective search task in well‐rested and fatigued subjects. A dose of 200 + 50 mg caffeine or placebo, dissolved in decaffeinated coffee, was administered in a double‐blind and deceptive fashion. The task was to detect a target letter on one diagonal of a visual display designated as relevant and ignore stimuli presented on the irrelevant diagonal. Behavioral measures were supplemented by event‐related potential (ERP) measures. Subjects reacted faster in the caffeine condition. Caffeine enhanced the N1 and the N2b components. Selection of relevant information apparently was more adequate in this condition. Search negativity was not affected by caffeine. Caffeine effects on the P3 elicited by target letters were more pronounced in the fatigued than in the well‐rested subjects, indicating that the effects of caffeine are dependent on the state of the subject. The results suggest that caffeine has specific rather than general effects on information processing.
ISSN:0048-5772
1469-8986
1540-5958
DOI:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1994.tb02345.x