A Computerized Stroop Test for the Evaluation of Psychotropic Drugs in Healthy Participants

Abstract

Background:The Stroop paradigm evaluates susceptibility to interference and is sensitive to dysfunction in frontal lobes and drug effects. The aim of the present study was to establish a simple and reliable computerized version of Stroop color-word test, which can be used for screening of various psychotropic drugs.Materials and Methods:The standardized method was followed in all cases, by recording the reaction time (RT) in msec in 24 healthy participants using computerized version of Stroop color-word test. Reproducibility of the test procedure was evaluated by recording the RTs by a single experimenter on two sessions (interday reproducibility). Validity of the model was further tested by evaluating the psychotropic effect of Zolpidem 5 mg, Caffeine 500 mg, or Placebo on 24 healthy subjects in a randomized, double blind three-way crossover design.Results:The method was found to produce low variability with coefficient of variation less than 10%. Interday reproducibility was very good as shown by Bland-Altman plot with most of the values within ±2SD. There was a significant increase in RTs in Stroop performance with Zolpidem at 1 hr and 2 hrs; in contrast, caffeine significantly decreased RTs in Stroop performance at 1 hr only compared to placebo.Conclusion:The Stroop color-word recording and analysis system is simple, sensitive to centrally acting drug effects, and has potential for future experimental psychomotor assessment studies.

Impact of Various Caffeine Vehicles on Mood and Cognitive, Neurological and Physiological Functions over Five Hours

“…SDS had little long-term caffeine effect and improved only focus in terms of mood. However, SDS consumption improved both physical reaction time and the time to complete the Stroop test, which has been previously shown (Patat et al 2000;Haskell et al 2005;Adan and Serra-Grabulosa 2010;Dixit et al 2012;Souissi et al 2012Souissi et al , 2013Pilli et al 2013;Santos et al 2014). Those who consumed SDS had the poorest performance on the Stroop test (time and accuracy) compared to the other groups and auditory recall scores were significantly worse at each time period.…”

“…This conflict resolution occurs in the anterior cingulate cortex and the prefrontal cortex, and can be examined through a Stroop test, which assesses the ability to name a color word written in a conflicting color. Time to complete a Stroop test has been shown to decrease (Patat et al 2000;Dixit, 2012;Pilli et al 2013) or not change (Bottoms et al 2013) after caffeine consumption.…”

Quantitative tractography reveals changes in the corticospinal tract in drug-naïve children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

“…This approach allowed us to determine the extent to which white matter microstructural abnormalities in ADHD were localized to focal portions of the corticospinal tract and to further examine the extent to which any focal abnormalities were associated with specific ADHD symptomatology. We used the Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test (IVA-CPT) 12 and the Stroop Colour-Word Test (Stroop) 13 as our neuropsychological tests. The IVA-CPT is one of the most widely used neuropsychological tests in ADHD; it evaluates attention and response control when visual and auditory stimuli are presented.…”

Does efavirenz replacement improve neurological function in treated HIV infection?

“…Task‐based (attentional processing) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) assessed response to the Stroop paradigm using incongruent visual stimuli . The Stroop test has been shown to be sensitive to psychotropic drug effects including stimulants and sedatives , as well as to EFV use in one previous study . fMRI was performed using a gradient‐echo EPI (echo planar imaging) sequence (TR/TE = 1.7 s/30 ms; 27 × 4.0 mm thick slices; 0.5 mm inter‐slice gap; 3 mm in‐plane resolution) with a block design Stroop paradigm.…”