Behavioral effects of sub-anesthetic ketamine in a go/no-go task
André S. Nilsen, Bjørn E. Juel, Nadine Farnes, Luis G. Romundstad, J. Storm
Journal of Psychedelic Studies January 15, 2021 DOI: 10.1556/2054.2020.00126 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Within-subject experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 7 |
| Population | Healthy participants |
| Intervention | Ketamine |
| Dose | sub-anesthetic doses of intravenously administered ketamine, infusion rate individually adjusted to produce noticeable subjective psychedelic effects |
| Topics | Esketamine Ketamine |
| Key findings | Sub-anesthetic ketamine did not significantly affect reaction times, omission errors, or post-error slowing on a motor response inhibition task. Performance impairment did correlate significantly with self-reported "anxiety" and "complex imagery." The authors caution that the small sample and variable subjective effects limit conclusions and call for further studies across wider dose ranges and tasks. |
Abstract
While psychedelic agents are known to have powerful, but largely unexplained, effects on contents of consciousness, there is an increasing interest in the potential clinical usefulness of such drugs for therapy, and legalization is discussed in some countries. Thus, it is relevant to study the effects of psychedelic compounds not only on experience, but also on behavioral performance.Seven healthy participants performed a motor response inhibition task before, during, and after sub-anesthetic doses of intravenously administered ketamine. The infusion rate was individually adjusted to produce noticeable subjective psychedelic effects.We observed no statistically significant impact of sub-anesthetic ketamine on reaction times, omission errors, or post error slowing, relative to the preceding drug-free condition. However, we did observe significant correlations between performance impairment and self-reported, subjective altered states of consciousness, specifically experience of “anxiety” and “complex imagery.”Considering the limited number of participants and large variation in strength of self-reported experiences, further studies with wider ranges of ketamine doses and behavioral tasks are needed to determine the presence and strength of potential behavioral effects.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on ketamine, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ketamine activates psychosis and alters limbic blood flow in schizophrenia Schizophrenic individuals | 1995 | Experimental study | |
| The spectral exponent of the resting EEG indexes the presence of consciousness during unresponsiveness induced by propofol, xenon, and ketamine Healthy participants | 2019 | Controlled experimental study | n = 15 |
| Ketamine Increases Human Motor Cortex Excitability to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Normal human subjects | 2003 | Experimental study | n = 7 |
| Evidence that Subanesthetic Doses of Ketamine Cause Sustained Disruptions of NMDA and AMPA-Mediated Frontoparietal Connectivity in Humans Human participants | 2015 | Experimental study | |
| Simultaneous population pharmacokinetic modelling of ketamine and three major metabolites in patients with treatment‐resistant bipolar depression Patients with treatment-resistant bipolar depression | 2012 | Population pharmacokinetic analysis | n = 9 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
- The strength of neural entrainment to electronic music correlates with proxies of altered states of consciousness. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2025
- Assessing the relationship between neural entrainment and altered states of consciousness induced by electronic music bioRxiv Preprint Server January 16, 2024
Cites 11
- Subanesthetic Effects of the Noncompetitive NMDA Antagonist, Ketamine, in Humans Archives of General Psychiatry March 1, 1994
- Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity Cell Reports June 1, 2018
- The Standardized Psychometric Assessment of Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) in Humans Pharmacopsychiatry July 1, 1998
- Ketamine-Induced Deficits in Auditory and Visual Context-Dependent Processing in Healthy Volunteers Archives of General Psychiatry December 1, 2000
- Ketamine Decreases Resting State Functional Network Connectivity in Healthy Subjects: Implications for Antidepressant Drug Action PLoS One September 24, 2012
and 6 more in the library