The Impact of Psychostimulants on Executive Functions: Cognitive Flexibility as a Model

Résumé

The current study aims to investigate the impact of drugs (psychostimulants) on executive functions among young individuals. We focused on both cognitive flexibility and cognitive control as they are deemed crucial, by presenting the following hypotheses:

• There are statistically significant differences between users and non-users in the time taken to complete subtest A of the Trail Making Test (TMT).
• There are statistically significant differences between users and non-users in the number of self-corrected errors in subtest B of the TMT.
• There are statistically significant differences between users and non-users in the number of uncorrected errors in subtest B of the TMT.

To test these hypotheses, a correlational descriptive approach was employed, utilizing the Trail Making Test (TMT) after administering it to a sample of 60 young individuals, equally divided between users and non-users.

Upon data analysis, the results of the hypotheses were as follows:

• There are statistically significant differences in the time taken to complete subtest A in favor of users.
• There are statistically significant differences in the number of self-corrected errors (cognitive flexibility) in subtest B in favor of non-users.
• There are statistically significant differences in the number of uncorrected errors (cognitive control) in subtest B in favor of non-users.
• These results were discussed and interpreted within the theoretical framework and previous studies.