Effects of Atropine upon Cognitive Performance and Subjective Variables

摘要

Seven male soldiers were evaluated with three cognitive tests 125-145 minutes after an i.m. injection of 0, 0.5, 1, or 3 mg of atropine on eight occasions. One dose, 2 mg, was given to all subjects on two occasions; 3 and 4 mg was given to only 1 and 2 subjects, respectively. All atropine testing was double-blinded with placebo trials in a hot dry environment (40 C, 20% R.H.). All subjects completed two 50-minute exercise sessions followed by 10 minutes of rest before each testing session. Pattern Comparison performance (Problems wrong per minute) was impaired the first time atropine was given, i.e. 0.5 mg; thereafter, it was not. Cognitive performance (problems attempted per minute) on the Coding and Grammatical Reasoning Tests was impaired for the 2 mg dose when it was repeated; Pattern Comparison performance was not. Three and 4 mg of atropine increased the effects observed at 2 mg. These results suggest 2 mg or more of atropine may impair performance on some military tasks, especially those where rapid performance with few errors is required.