Effect of Atomoxetine on Attentional Lapses: An Animal Model

Chawla, Pooja (2015) Effect of Atomoxetine on Attentional Lapses: An Animal Model. Undergraduate thesis, under the direction of Karen Sabol from Psychology, University of Mississippi.

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Abstract

Atomoxetine (ATX) is a non-stimulant drug that has been used to treat symptoms of ADHD, including lapses of attention. These attentional lapses are depicted as a longer, positive skew in a reaction time distribution comprised of a normal and an exponential curve. The central tendency is thought to represent sensory-motor processing; while the positive skew is thought to be caused by attentional lapses in animal models. This positive skew is larger in individuals with ADHD and is thought to be a result of an increased number of attentional lapses. In the animal model used in this experiment reaction time is divided into initiation time and movement time, and further divided into the mode and deviation from the mode (DevMode) of the initiation time distribution. The DevMode represents the positive skew of the initiation time distribution. The aim of this experiment was to study the effect of atomoxetine on each of these measures. Rats were trained using a 2-choice reaction time task. The effects of ATX (vehicle, 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 mg/kg) on the mode and DevMode were observed. Increasing the dose of ATX did not have a significant effect on the measure of mode. However, a significant decrease of DevMode occurred at 1.0 mg/kg dose of ATX. This study provides further evidence that the mode and skew of initiation time distribution are associated with different behavioral processes. The results support the idea that this task can be used as an animal model for attentional lapses as observed in ADHD.

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