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Abstract #4671

Higher Striatal GABA Relates To A More Serial And Efficient Mode Of Action Cascading And Stronger Attentional Gating In Airplane Pilots

Shalmali Dharmadhikari 1,2 , Ali Yildiz 3 , Clara Quetscher 3 , Witold Chmielewski 3 , Ulrike Dydak 1,2 , and Christian Beste 4

1 School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, W Lafayette, Indiana, United States, 2 Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, 3 Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, Biopsychology, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany, 4 Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Dresden, Germany

A neurobiochemical-electrophysiological study was conducted to examine the role of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the mechanism of action cascading, and hence the mechanisms mediating superior multi-tasking performance in airplane pilot trainees vs controls. Airplane pilot trainees exhibited stronger coupling leading to superior action control in situations requiring a cascading of actions. The results indicate that the speed of responding as well as attentional gating functions depend on striatal GABA concentrations. The results show that GABA is an important modulator of multitasking abilities.

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