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Influence of caffeine on selective attention in well‐rested and fatigued subjects
Author(s) -
LORIST MONICQUE M.,
SNEL JAN,
KOK ALBERT,
MULDER GIJSBERTUS
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1994.tb02345.x
Subject(s) - caffeine , psychology , placebo , audiology , task (project management) , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , psychiatry , medicine , alternative medicine , management , pathology , economics
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.