Introduction A revised indoor air quality law has been implemented in Virginia to protect the public from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke exposure. This legislation contains exemptions that include allowances for smoking in a room that is structurally separated and separately ventilated. The objective of the current study was to examine the impact of this law on air quality in waterpipe cafés, as well as to compare the air quality in these cafés to restaurants that allow cigarette smoking and those where no smoking is permitted. Methods Indoor air quality in 28 venues (17 waterpipe cafés, five cigarette smoking-permitted restaurants and six smoke-free restaurants (five with valid data)) in Virginia was assessed during 4 March to 27 May 2011. Real-time measurements of particulate matter (PM) with 2.5 µm aerodynamic diameter or smaller (PM2.5) were obtained and occupant behaviour/venue characteristics were assessed. Results The highest mean PM2.5 concentration was observed for waterpipe café smoking rooms (374 µg/m3, n=17) followed by waterpipe café non-smoking rooms (123 µg/m3, n=11), cigarette smoking-permitted restaurant smoking rooms (119 µg/m3, n=5), cigarette smoking-permitted restaurant non-smoking rooms (26 µg/m3, n=5) and smoke-free restaurants (9 µg/m3, n=5). Smoking density was positively correlated with PM2.5 across smoking rooms and the smoke-free restaurants. In addition, PM2.5 was positively correlated between smoking and non-smoking rooms of venues. Conclusions The PM2.5 concentrations observed among the waterpipe cafés sampled here indicated air quality in the waterpipe café smoking rooms was worse than restaurant rooms in which cigarette smoking was permitted, and state-required non-smoking rooms in waterpipe cafés may expose patrons and employees to PM2.5 concentrations above national and international air quality standards. Reducing the health risks of secondhand smoke may require smoke-free establishments in which tobacco smoking sources such as water pipes are, like cigarettes, prohibited.

It is well established clinically that rhythmic auditory cues can improve gait and other motor behaviors in Parkinson's disease (PD) and other disorders. However, the neural systems underlying this therapeutic effect are largely unknown. To investigate this question we scanned people with PD and age‐matched healthy controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). All subjects performed a rhythmic motor behavior (right hand finger tapping) with and without simultaneous auditory rhythmic cues at two different speeds (1 and 4 Hz). We used spatial independent component analysis (ICA) and regression to identify task‐related functional connectivity networks and assessed differences between groups in intra‐ and inter‐network connectivity. Overall, the control group showed greater intra‐network connectivity in perceptual and motor related networks during motor tapping both with and without rhythmic cues. The PD group showed greater inter‐network connectivity between the auditory network and the executive control network, and between the executive control network and the motor/cerebellar network associated with the motor task performance. We interpret our results as indicating that the temporal rhythmic auditory information may assist compensatory mechanisms through network‐level effects, reflected in increased interaction between auditory and executive networks that in turn modulate activity in cortico‐cerebellar networks.

Studies suggest that reduced cognitive control due to nicotine withdrawal may have a critical role in promoting tobacco use. The P3 family of event-related brain potential (ERP) components is thought to serve as markers of cognitive control processes. Unfortunately, existing research that examines the effects of nicotine deprivation on P3 amplitude has been marred by small sample sizes and other design limitations. The present study sought to determine the effects of nicotine deprivation on P3b and P3a amplitudes, which index task relevant target detection and orienting responses to novelty, respectively. A secondary aim was to examine self-reported trait cognitive control as a moderator of nicotine deprivation-induced reductions in P3b and P3a amplitudes. In all, 121 nicotine-dependent smokers attended two experimental sessions following 12-h smoking/nicotine deprivation. In a counterbalanced manner, participants smoked nicotine cigarettes during one session and placebo cigarettes during the other session. Findings indicated that nicotine deprivation reduced P3b amplitude (po0.00001) during a three-stimulus oddball task independent of trait cognitive control. In contrast, nicotine deprivation reduced P3a only among participants who scored lower on measures of trait cognitive control. Implications for conceptualizing risk for nicotine dependence, and its treatment, are discussed.

Objective There has been growing interest in the role that implicit processing of drug cues can play in motivating drug use behavior. However, the extent to which drug cue processing biases relate to the processing biases exhibited to other types of evocative stimuli is largely unknown. The goal of the present study was to determine how the implicit cognitive processing of smoking cues relates to the processing of affective cues using a novel paradigm. Methods Smokers (n = 50) and non-smokers (n = 38) completed a picture-viewing task, in which participants were presented with a series of smoking, pleasant, unpleasant and neutral images while engaging in a distractor task designed to direct controlled resources away from conscious processing of image content. Electroencephalogram recordings were obtained throughout the task for extraction of event-related potentials (ERPs). Results Smokers exhibited differential processing of smoking cues across three different ERP indices compared to nonsmokers. Comparable effects were found for pleasant cues on two of these indices. Late cognitive processing of smoking and pleasant cues was associated with nicotine dependence and cigarette use. Conclusions Results suggest that cognitive biases may extend across classes of stimuli among smokers. This raises important questions about the fundamental meaning of cognitive biases and suggests the need to consider generalized cognitive biases in theories of drug use behavior and interventions based on cognitive bias modification.

Although alcohol-caffeine consumption was associated with heavier drinking characteristics compared with alcohol-only consumption, overall alcohol consumption patterns were similar between users of various alcohol-caffeine combinations. Future examinations should assess alcohol in combination with a variety of caffeine sources to determine whether energy drinks present a unique risk.