Biomaterial Database

Some effects of ACTH 4-10 on performance during a serial reaction task. 1975

A W Gaillard, and A F Sanders

Eighteen subjects worked continuously for half an hour in a self-paced reaction task. Half of the subjects were injected with ACTH 4-10 (30 mg/s.c.) and the other half with a placebo. The subjects injected with ACTH 4-10 showed a larger improvement in reaction time during the experimental session than the placebo group. However, this effect disappeared in a short retest, which was given half an hour after the experimental session. These results suggest that ACTH 4-10 has no effect on skill acquisition, but counteracts the build-up of reactive inhibition during the experimental session; that is, the peptide suppresses the decrease in motivation, which usually occurs during continuous performance tasks. This notion is confirmed by an analysis of the frequency distributions of the reaction times. Treatment effects were only found for the long reaction times. Long reaction times tend to occur with increasing frequency as a function of time-on-task and are an indication for the level of motivation of the subject. It was concluded that ACTH 4-10 counteracts the usual decay in performance as a function of time-on-task due to increasing boredom and mental fatigue.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007858	Learning	Relatively permanent change in behavior that is the result of past experience or practice. The concept includes the acquisition of knowledge.	Phenomenography
D008297	Male		Males
D009042	Motivation	Those factors which cause an organism to behave or act in either a goal-seeking or satisfying manner. They may be influenced by physiological drives or by external stimuli.	Incentives,Disincentives,Expectations,Disincentive,Expectation,Incentive,Motivations
D010446	Peptide Fragments	Partial proteins formed by partial hydrolysis of complete proteins or generated through PROTEIN ENGINEERING techniques.	Peptide Fragment,Fragment, Peptide,Fragments, Peptide
D011930	Reaction Time	The time from the onset of a stimulus until a response is observed.	Response Latency,Response Speed,Response Time,Latency, Response,Reaction Times,Response Latencies,Response Times,Speed, Response,Speeds, Response
D011931	Reactive Inhibition	Tendency toward a lessened strength of response due to practice or activity. It is independent of the effect of reward and is a direct function of time interval since the last response and the number of preceding responses.	Inhibition, Reactive,Inhibitions, Reactive,Reactive Inhibitions
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000324	Adrenocorticotropic Hormone	An anterior pituitary hormone that stimulates the ADRENAL CORTEX and its production of CORTICOSTEROIDS. ACTH is a 39-amino acid polypeptide of which the N-terminal 24-amino acid segment is identical in all species and contains the adrenocorticotrophic activity. Upon further tissue-specific processing, ACTH can yield ALPHA-MSH and corticotrophin-like intermediate lobe peptide (CLIP).	ACTH,Adrenocorticotropin,Corticotropin,1-39 ACTH,ACTH (1-39),Adrenocorticotrophic Hormone,Corticotrophin,Corticotrophin (1-39),Corticotropin (1-39),Hormone, Adrenocorticotrophic,Hormone, Adrenocorticotropic
D012691	Serial Learning	Learning to make a series of responses in exact order.	Learning, Serial,Learnings, Serial,Serial Learnings