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Full-Text Articles in Psychology
The Effect Of Atomoxetine On Directed And Random Exploration In Humans, Christopher M. Warren, R. C. Wilson, N. J. Van Der Wee, E. J. Giltay, M. S. Van Noorden, J. A. Bosch, J. D. Cohen, S. Nieuwenhuis
The Effect Of Atomoxetine On Directed And Random Exploration In Humans, Christopher M. Warren, R. C. Wilson, N. J. Van Der Wee, E. J. Giltay, M. S. Van Noorden, J. A. Bosch, J. D. Cohen, S. Nieuwenhuis
Psychology Faculty Publications
The adaptive regulation of the trade-off between pursuing a known reward (exploitation) and sampling lesser-known options in search of something better (exploration) is critical for optimal performance. Theory and recent empirical work suggest that humans use at least two strategies for solving this dilemma: a directed strategy in which choices are explicitly biased toward information seeking, and a random strategy in which decision noise leads to exploration by chance. Here we examined the hypothesis that random exploration is governed by the neuromodulatory locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system. We administered atomoxetine, a norepinephrine transporter blocker that increases extracellular levels of norepinephrine throughout the …
Norepinephrine Transporter Blocker Atomoxetine Increases Salivary Alpha Amylase, Christopher M. Warren, Ruud L. Van Den Brink, Sander Nieuwenhuis, Jos A. Bosch
Norepinephrine Transporter Blocker Atomoxetine Increases Salivary Alpha Amylase, Christopher M. Warren, Ruud L. Van Den Brink, Sander Nieuwenhuis, Jos A. Bosch
Psychology Faculty Publications
It has been suggested that central norepinephrine (NE) activity may be inferred from increases in salivary alpha-amylase (SAA), but data in favor of this proposition are limited. We administered 40 mg of atomoxetine, a selective NE transporter blocker that increases central NE levels, to 24 healthy adult participants in a double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over design. Atomoxetine administration significantly increased SAA secretion and concentrations at 75–180 min after treatment (more than doubling baseline levels). Consistent with evidence that elevation in central NE is a co-determinant of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, salivary cortisol also approximately doubled at the same time points. Moreover, changes in …