Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine (Jan 2013)

A computerized stroop test for the evaluation of psychotropic drugs in healthy participants

  • Raveendranadh Pilli,
  • MUR Naidu,
  • Usha Rani Pingali,
  • J C Shobha,
  • A Praveen Reddy

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/0253-7176.116251
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 35, no. 2
pp. 180 – 189

Abstract

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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.

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