ArticleNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2018
Dissociable effects of acute SSRI (escitalopram) on executive, learning and emotional functions in healthy humans.
Article in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 93 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors on memory functioning in older adults: A systematic literature review.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2022Pooled it
- Behavioral intervention with task repetition compared to pharmacological intervention with SSRI for enhancement of cognitive control in emotional and non-emotional settings.Psychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- Computational modelling and neural correlates of reinforcement learning following three-week escitalopram: a double-blind, placebo-controlled semi-randomised study.Translational psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Effects of escitalopram on synaptic density in the healthy human brain: a randomized controlled trial.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Trial
- Chronic escitalopram in healthy volunteers has specific effects on reinforcement sensitivity: a double-blind, placebo-controlled semi-randomised study.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Trial
- Serotonin depletion impairs both Pavlovian and instrumental reversal learning in healthy humans.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Trial
- Effect of Tryptophan Depletion on Conditioned Threat Memory Expression: Role of Intolerance of Uncertainty.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2021Trial
- A single dose of escitalopram blunts the neural response in the thalamus and caudate during monetary loss.Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN · 2021Trial
- MDMA-induced changes in within-network connectivity contradict the specificity of these alterations for the effects of serotonergic hallucinogens.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Trial
- Serotonin depletion amplifies distinct human social emotions as a function of individual differences in personality.Translational psychiatry · 2021Trial
- The effects of acute serotonin challenge on executive planning in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), their first-degree relatives, and healthy controls.Psychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- Computational modelling reveals contrasting effects on reinforcement learning and cognitive flexibility in stimulant use disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder: remediating effects of dopaminergic D2/3 receptor agents.Psychopharmacology · 2019Trial
- Monoaminergic modulation of the relation between motor cortical activity and grip force.Journal of neurophysiology · 2026Article
- Revisiting the Role of Serotonin in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: New Insights from Preclinical and Clinical Studies.Clinical drug investigation · 2025Review
- Time Perception Test in IntelliCage System for Preclinical Study: Linking Depression and Serotonergic Modulation.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The development of cognitive flexibility and its implications for mental health disorders.Psychological medicine · 2024Article
- Direct serotonin release in humans shapes aversive learning and inhibition.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Article
- Protective Effects of Long-Term Escitalopram Administration on Memory and HippocampalBrain sciences · 2024Article
- Comparable roles for serotonin in rats and humans for computations underlying flexible decision-making.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Serotonin is implicated in multiple executive functions including goal-directed learning, cognitive flexibility, response inhibition and emotional regulation. These functions are impaired in several psychiatric disorders, such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. We tested the cognitive effects of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor escitalopram, using an acute and clinically relevant dose (20 mg), in 66 healthy male and female volunteers in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Participants performed a cognitive test battery including a probabilistic and reversal learning task, the CANTAB intra-dimensional/extra-dimensional shift test of cognitive flexibility, a response inhibition task with interleaved stop-signal and No-Go trials and tasks measuring emotional processing. We showed that acute escitalopram administration impaired learning and cognitive flexibility, but improved the ability to inhibit responses in stop-signal trials while leaving unaffected acute emotional processing. Our findings suggest a dissociation of effects of acute escitalopram on cognitive functions, possibly mediated by differential modulation of brain serotonin levels in distinct functional neural circuits.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.