Noradrenergic blockade and numeric working memory in humans

Müller, Ulrich; Mottweiler, Elisabeth; Bublak, Peter

doi:10.1177/0269881105048888

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

Noradrenergic blockade and numeric working memory in humans

MPS-Authors

/persons/resource/persons19867

Mottweiler, Elisabeth
Department Cognitive Neurology, MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Society;

External Resource

No external resources are shared

Fulltext (restricted access)

There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.

Fulltext (public)

There are no public fulltexts stored in PuRe

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Müller, U., Mottweiler, E., & Bublak, P. (2005). Noradrenergic blockade and numeric working memory in humans. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 19(1), 21-28. doi:10.1177/0269881105048888.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-0010-CD5C-A

Abstract

To investigate the noradrenergic modulation of working memory in humans single doses of two beta-blockers [either 25 mg of propranolol (lipophilic) or 50 mg of atenolol (hydrophilic)] or placebo were administered to young healthy volunteers (16 subjects per drug condition) performing a numerical working memory task that requires either short-term maintenance or maintenance plus manipulation of visually presented four-number sequences. Higher manipulation costs (i.e. process-specific slowing of reaction times in the manipulation conditions compared to the control condition) were observed after propranolol but not after atenolol. The propranolol effect was mainly observed in subjects with low emotional arousal (i.e. low state anxiety rating at baseline). Because both beta-blockers induced a comparable decrease of blood pressure and pulse, the propranolol effect on the 'working component' of working memory is considered to be a central, presumably prefrontal one.