Logo image
GABA supplementation negatively affects cognitive flexibility independent of tyrosine
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

GABA supplementation negatively affects cognitive flexibility independent of tyrosine

L.W. Lim and L. Aquili
Journal of Clinical Medicine, Vol.10(9), Art. 1807
2021
pdf
Tyrosine.pdfDownloadView
Published (Version of Record) Open Access
url
Free to Read *No subscription requiredView

Abstract

Increasing evidence, particularly from animal studies, suggests that dopamine and GABA are important modulators of cognitive flexibility. In humans, increasing dopamine synthesis through its precursor tyrosine has been shown to result in performance improvements, but few studies have reported the effects of GABA supplementation in healthy participants. We conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized experiment to test the interactive effects of tyrosine and GABA administration on two measures of cognitive flexibility, response inhibition and task switching. A total of 48 healthy volunteers were split into four groups (placebo, tyrosine alone, GABA alone, and tyrosine and GABA combined). They completed cognitive flexibility tasks at baseline and after drug administration. We found that tyrosine alone had no impact on the measures of cognitive flexibility, whereas GABA alone and in combination with tyrosine worsened task switching. Our results provide preliminary evidence that putative increases in GABA and dopamine synthesis do not interact to affect cognitive flexibility performance.

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

Source: InCites

Metrics

12 File views/ downloads
172 Record Views

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Citation topics
1 Clinical & Life Sciences
1.7 Neuroscanning
1.7.592 Gambling and Decision-Making
Web Of Science research areas
Neurosciences
ESI research areas
Clinical Medicine
Logo image