A Cognitive-Pharmacokinetic Computational Model of the Effect of Toluene on Performance
- Christopher Fisher, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, United States
- Christopher Myers, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, United States
- Reem Hassan, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, United States
- Christopher Stevens, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, United States
- Charles Hack, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, United States
- Jeffery Gearhart, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, United States
- Glenn Gunzelmann, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, United States
Abstract
We developed a cognitive-pharmacokinetic computational (CPC) model
to understand how pharmacoactive substances, such as caffeine and toluene,
modulate cognition. In this integrated model, dynamic physiological mechanisms
are simulated to predict concentrations of the solvent toluene in the brain,
which modulates specific cognitive systems in a dose-response fashion over
multiple hours. We used our CPC model to reanalyze the results from prior
research that documented an increase in reaction time following exposure to
toluene in several laboratory tasks with no change in accuracy. Our analysis
provides tentative evidence that toluene affects motor execution, rather than
attention or declarative memory.
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