SEROTONIN AND HUMAN INFORMATION-PROCESSING - FLUVOXAMINE CAN IMPROVE REACTION-TIME PERFORMANCE

Fluvoxamine is a specific serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Recent evidenc e suggests that this antidepressive drug shortens the reaction time (R T) of healthy volunteers. The first objective of the present study was to decipher whether this effect is due to an improvement in informati on processing per st or to the adoption of an error-prone strategy. Th e second objective was to locate the effect of fluvoxamine within the series of information processing stages by means of Sternberg's additi ve factor method. After administration of a single oral dose of fluvox amine (100 mg) or a placebo (randomized double-blind. cross-over desig n), eight healthy volunteers performed a choice RT task in which stimu lus intensity, stimulus-response compatibility and response repertoire were manipulated. Fluvoxamine shortened RT without decreasing the acc uracy of the responses. This demonstrates that fluvoxamine improves in formation processing per se. The effect of fluvoxamine was additive on RT with the respective effects of stimulus intensity and stimulus-res ponse compatibility. This result suggests that fluvoxamine spares the processing stages of stimulus preprocessing and response selection. (C ) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.