Drug reduced pupil responses but not error awareness in older adults
A two-session, double-blind trial in 30 healthy adults aged 60–80 found reduced pupil responses with atomoxetine versus placebo, but no significant difference in error awareness.
Non-randomized trial, double-blind, placebo-controlled
Limit: Only 30 healthy older adults were studied
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Thirty healthy adults aged 60–80 took part in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial across two sessions. They received atomoxetine or placebo and performed a task used to test whether people notice their own errors. The researchers measured brief changes in pupil size as a sign of the body's automatic response to errors.
Atomoxetine reduced pupil dilation after errors. It also reduced pupil dilation after novel stimuli in a separate task used to check the drug's effects. Yet participants' awareness of their errors did not differ significantly between atomoxetine and placebo. The drug also left performance on the main task unchanged.
Why it matters
Failure to notice mistakes becomes more common in older age. The authors suggest that brief automatic bodily responses are a consequence of conscious error awareness, rather than a contributor to it, and are unlikely to explain this age-related change.
Caveats
The trial included only 30 healthy older adults, so its findings do not establish effects in younger people or people with health conditions. The abstract does not report the dose or adverse events.
The paper
University of Iowa
Biological Psychiatry Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Jun 9, 2026, Open access, accepted manuscript
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