Cigarette Smoking and Nicotine Gum (0, 2 and 4 mg): Effects upon Four Visual Attention Tasks

Parrott, Andrew C.; Craig, Debbie I.

doi:10.1159/000118807

Cited by 82 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(34 reference statements)

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“…A large body of evidence suggests that nicotine can improve measures of attention in smokers (Wesnes and Warburton, 1983;Parrott and Craig, 1992;Leigh et al, 1977;Hasenfratz and Battig, 1992;Rodway et al, 2000). Attentional improvements after nicotine administration in nonsmokers are, however, controversial (Heishman et al, 1993;Heishman and Henningfield, 2000;Foulds et al, 1996;Levin et al, 1998).…”

Section: Behavioral Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Nicotine Modulates Reorienting of Visuospatial Attention and Neural Activity in Human Parietal Cortex

Thiel

Zilles

Fink

2005

Neuropsychopharmacol

170

139

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Prior studies in animals and humans indicate that reorienting of visuospatial attention is modulated by the cholinergic agonist nicotine. We have previously identified neural correlates of alerting and reorienting attention in humans and found that the parietal cortex is specifically involved in reorienting. This study investigates whether the alerting and reorienting systems, especially in the parietal cortex, are modulated by nicotine. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and studied 15 nonsmoking volunteers under placebo and nicotine (NICORETTE s polacrilex gum 1 and 2 mg). Subjects performed a cued target detection task with four different types of randomly intermixed trials (no, neutral, valid, and invalid cue trials). Alerting was captured by comparing BOLD activity and reaction times (RTs) in neutrally cued trials with no cue trials. Reorienting was isolated by comparing invalidly with validly cued trials. On the behavioral level, nicotine affected reorienting of attention by speeding RTs in invalidly cued trials; alerting was not affected by nicotine. Neurally, however, nicotine modulated both attentional systems. Pharmacologic effects on alerting-related brain activity were mainly evident as modulation of BOLD responses in the right angular gyrus and right middle frontal gyrus due to a reduction of neural activity in no cue trials. In the reorienting system, effects of nicotine were mainly evident in the left intraparietal sulcus and precuneus and due to a reduction of neural activity in invalidly cued trials. We conclude that nicotine enhances reorienting of attention in visuospatial tasks and that one behavioral correlate of speeded RTs is reduced parietal activity.

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Section: Behavioral Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Nicotine Modulates Reorienting of Visuospatial Attention and Neural Activity in Human Parietal Cortex

Thiel

Zilles

Fink

2005

Neuropsychopharmacol

170

139

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is also associated with attenuation of tobacco withdrawal symptoms (Kleykamp et al 2008;Shiffman et al 2006) and improved cognitive performance in abstinent smokers. Thus sustained attention (Mancuso et al 1999;Parrot and Craig 1992) and working memory (Atzori et al 2008;Grobe et al 1998) are improved after NRT compared with placebo, although there are also some negative findings (Ahnallen et al 2008;Cook et al 2003;Warburton and Mancuso 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nicotine derived from the electronic cigarette improves time-based prospective memory in abstinent smokers

2013

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Rationale: It is well-established that nicotine improves, and deprivation impairs, cognitive performance and mood in smokers. Prospective memory (PM), remembering to execute a delayed intention at a given time point, is under-explored in smokers. Whilst a handful of studies have shown improved PM with nicotine, effects of nicotine delivered via the electronic cigarette have not been investigated.Objective: This study explores whether, by comparison with placebo, nicotine delivered via the e-cigarette can improve PM, tobacco withdrawal symptoms and desire to smoke in abstinent smokers.Methods: Twenty smokers, abstinent for 8-10 hours, each completed two experimental sessions under nicotine (18mg) and placebo (0mg) e-cigarette conditions. Participants completed a single-item desire to smoke scale and the Mood and Physical Symptoms Scale (MPSS). PM was measured using the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test (CAMPROMPT).Results: Compared with placebo, the nicotine e-cigarette reduced desire to smoke and tobacco withdrawal symptoms, and improved time-based but not event-based PM. There was a moderate, marginally significant negative correlation between PM performance during abstinence and nicotine dependence.Conclusions: This is the first study to show that nicotine derived via e-cigarette can improve PM in abstinent smokers suggesting efficient nicotine delivery. That the effect of nicotine was restricted to time-based rather than event-based PM is consistent with the view that nicotine acts to improve performance on strategic (effortful) rather than automatic processing. These findings add to the growing body of evidence that the e-cigarette can replace some of the effects of nicotine derived from tobacco smoking thus highlighting its potential for smoking cessation.

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“…Tasks designed to tax the selectivity component of attention such as the Stroop paradigm have been less successful in showing performance enhancement (Parrott and Craig, 1992;Foulds et al, 1996;Poltavski and Petros, 2006). Similarly, animal studies support enhancement of simple stimulus detection (Grilly et al, 2000;Hahn et al, 2002Hahn et al, , 2003, but not of discriminatory processes (Turchi et al, 1995;Bushnell et al, 1997), after nicotinic agonist administration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nicotine Enhances Visuospatial Attention by Deactivating Areas of the Resting Brain Default Network

Hahn¹,

Ross²,

Yang³

et al. 2007

J. Neurosci.

187

165

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Nicotine-induced attentional enhancement is of potential therapeutic value. To investigate the precise attentional function(s) affected and their neuronal mechanisms, the current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study used an attention task in which subjects responded to stimuli of high (INT high ) or low intensity presented randomly in one of four peripheral locations. Central cues of varying precision predicted the target location. In some trials, the cue was not followed by a target, allowing separate analysis of blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses to cue. Minimally deprived smokers underwent fast event-related fMRI twice: once with a nicotine patch (21 mg) and once with a placebo patch. Matched nonsmokers were scanned twice without a patch. Behaviorally, nicotine reduced omission errors and reaction time (RT) of valid and invalid cue trials and intra-individual variability of RT and did so preferentially in trials with INT high . The BOLD signal related to cue-only trials, regardless of cue precision, demonstrated nicotine-induced deactivation in anterior and posterior cingulate, angular gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and cuneus. These regions overlapped with the so-called "default network," which activates during rest and deactivates with attention-demanding activities. Partial correlations controlling for nicotine plasma levels indicated associations of deactivation by nicotine in posterior cingulate and angular gyrus with performance improvements under INT high . Performance and regional activity in the absence of nicotine never differed between smokers and nonsmokers, ruling out a simple reversal of a deprivation-induced state. These findings suggest that nicotine improved attentional performance by downregulating resting brain function in response to task-related cues. Together with the selectivity of effects for INT high , this suggests a nicotine-induced potentiation of the alerting properties of external stimuli.

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Cigarette Smoking and Nicotine Gum (0, 2 and 4 mg): Effects upon Four Visual Attention Tasks

Cited by 82 publications

References 13 publications

Nicotine Modulates Reorienting of Visuospatial Attention and Neural Activity in Human Parietal Cortex

Nicotine Modulates Reorienting of Visuospatial Attention and Neural Activity in Human Parietal Cortex

Nicotine derived from the electronic cigarette improves time-based prospective memory in abstinent smokers

Nicotine Enhances Visuospatial Attention by Deactivating Areas of the Resting Brain Default Network

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