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Lorazepam: A New Tool to Study the Processing of Discontinuities

The involvement of GABAA in the computation of visual information has been suggested in numerous electrophysiological studies. It might play a role, in particular, in the generation of the responses of hypercomplex cells involved in the processing of discontinuities. Benzodiazepines like lorazepam enhance the fixation of GABA on the GABAA receptor. We tested the hypothesis that lorazepam enhances the detection of discontinuities, with static stimuli composed of horizontal line-segments. There were four types of stimuli, with (1) collinear and discontinuous, (2) collinear and continuous, (3) parallel and discontinuous, and (4) parallel and continuous elements. A stimulus was presented on each trial in the centre of a computer screen for 160 ms. The task was to decide whether the stimulus was continuous or discontinuous. Response was given on two response keys. The results showed that lorazepam-treated subjects were faster at detecting a discontinuity when the stimulus included two aligned line-segments (− −) as compared to two parallel line-segments (=). Placebo-treated subjects displayed equivalent performance in the two conditions. These results support the hypothesis that lorazepam enhances responses to line-ends. They are consistent with previous results, obtained with static drawings, letters, fragmented squares, and dynamic stimuli. Lorazepam might be a useful tool to investigate visuo-perceptual integration processes and to link experimental psychology and electrophysiology.