Serotonin and human information processing: fluvoxamine can improve reaction time performance

Fluvoxamine is a specific serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Recent evidence suggests that this antidepressive drug shortens the reaction time (RT) of healthy volunteers. The first objective of the present study was to decipher whether this effect is due to an improvement in information processing per se or to the adoption of an error-prone strategy. The second objective was to locate the effect of fluvoxamine within the series of information processing stages by means of Sternberg's additive factor method. After administration of a single oral dose of fluvoxamine (100 mg) or a placebo (randomized double-blind, cross-over design), eight healthy volunteers performed a choice RT task in which stimulus intensity, stimulus-response compatibility and response repertoire were manipulated. Fluvoxamine shortened RT without decreasing the accuracy of the responses. This demonstrates that fluvoxamine improves information processing per se. The effect of fluvoxamine was additive on RT with the respective effects of stimulus intensity and stimulus-response compatibility. This result suggests that fluvoxamine spares the processing stages of stimulus preprocessing and response selection.