Effects of Panax quinquefolius (American ginseng) on the steady state visually evoked potential during cognitive performance

David J. White, David A. Camfield, A. Ossoukhova, Karen Savage, R. Le Cozannet, P. Fança-Berthon, A. Scholey

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objective
To investigate the effects of acute Panax quinquefolius (American ginseng) administration on steady state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs) during completion of working memory and continuous performance tasks.

Methods
A randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled, balanced, cross-over trial was conducted in middle-aged volunteers aged between 40 and 60 years. Participants were administered 200 mg P. quinquefolius and placebo on two separate testing sessions. Six-h post-dose participants completed spatial working memory (SWM) and continuous performance (CP) tasks while SSVEP from a diffuse task-irrelevant 13 Hz flicker was recorded.

Results
During SWM retrieval, P. quinquefolius was associated with significantly reduced prefrontal SSVEP latency. There were no significant treatment effects on CP nor behavioural performance of either task.

Conclusions
These findings provide preliminary evidence of increased recruitment of prefrontal brain regions during working memory processing following a single acute dose of P. quinquefolius.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-6
Number of pages6
JournalHuman Psychopharmacology
Volume35
Issue number6
Early online date8 Sept 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • American ginseng
  • Panax quinquefolius
  • working memory
  • steady state visually evoked potential (SSVEP)

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