The behavioural effects of the serotonin 1A receptor agonist buspirone on cognition and emotional processing in healthy volunteers

Abstract

Rationale The 5-HT 1A receptor is expressed widely across the brain and is implicated in the mechanism of action of several therapeutics for mood disorders. However, there is limited and contradictory evidence about the role of this receptor in emotional processing and cognition. Objectives The current study tested the acute effects of a single dose of the 5-HT 1A agonist buspirone (20 mg), on a range of emotional processing (Emotional Test Battery) and cognitive (Auditory Verbal Learning Task (AVLT) and N-back) tasks in healthy, male and female volunteers (N = 62). The study was a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled, parallel group design. Results Buspirone reduced accuracy for detection of facial expressions of disgust and increased misclassification of negative facial emotions. It had no significant effects on categorisation or recall of emotionally-valanced words. Buspirone also reduced recall accuracy in the AVLT but had no significant effect in the N-back task. Participants receiving buspirone were more likely to experience nausea, light-headedness and sleepiness. Conclusions Acute buspirone administration produced a mild impairment in verbal memory and a subtle negative bias in emotional processing in healthy volunteers. These effects are consistent with the mixed effects of buspirone on pre- and post-synaptic 5-HT 1A receptors.

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