Effects of Smoking Abstinence on Visuospatial Working Memory Function in Schizophrenia

George, Tony P.

doi:10.1016/s0893-133x(01)00296-2

Cited by 207 publications

(166 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(46 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

150

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Enhancement of cholinergic neurotransmission has been shown to improve memory performance by improving the selectivity of perceptual processing during encoding (Furey et al, 2000). Two prior studies have observed improved memory performance in healthy adult smokers during acute smoking abstinence (George et al, 2002;Jacobsen et al, 2004). The present findings suggest that this effect occurs in adolescent smokers and is modified by prenatal exposure to active maternal smoking.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Visuospatial Memory Deficits Emerging During Nicotine Withdrawal in Adolescents with Prenatal Exposure to Active Maternal Smoking

Jacobsen

Slotkin

Westerveld

et al. 2005

Neuropsychopharmacol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Active maternal smoking during pregnancy elevates the risk of cognitive deficits and tobacco smoking among offspring. Preclinical work has shown that combined prenatal and adolescent exposure to nicotine produces more pronounced hippocampal changes and greater deficits in cholinergic activity upon nicotine withdrawal than does prenatal or adolescent exposure to nicotine alone. Few prior studies have examined the potential modifying effects of gestational exposure to active maternal smoking on cognitive or brain functional response to tobacco smoking or nicotine withdrawal in adolescents. We examined visuospatial and verbal memory in 35 adolescent tobacco smokers with prenatal exposure to active maternal smoking and 26 adolescent tobacco smokers with no prenatal exposure to maternal smoking who were similar in age, educational attainment, general intelligence, and baseline plasma cotinine. Subjects were studied during ad libitum smoking and after 24 h of abstinence from smoking. A subset of subjects from each group also underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a visuospatial encoding and recognition task. Adolescent tobacco smokers with prenatal exposure experienced greater nicotine withdrawal-related deficits in immediate and delayed visuospatial memory relative to adolescent smokers with no prenatal exposure. Among adolescent smokers with prenatal exposure, nicotine withdrawal was associated with increased activation of left parahippocampal gyrus during early recognition testing of visuospatial stimuli and increased activation of bilateral hippocampus during delayed recognition testing of visuospatial stimuli. These findings extend prior preclinical work and suggest that, in human adolescent tobacco smokers, prenatal exposure to active maternal smoking is associated with alterations in medial temporal lobe function and concomitant deficits in visuospatial memory.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Visuospatial Memory Deficits Emerging During Nicotine Withdrawal in Adolescents with Prenatal Exposure to Active Maternal Smoking

Jacobsen

Slotkin

Westerveld

et al. 2005

Neuropsychopharmacol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some studies indicate that cigarette smoking or nicotine may ameliorate some of the cognitive deficits in schizophrenic patients (Smith et al, 2002;George et al, 2002;Hahn et al, 2012), suggesting that cigarette smoking or nicotine serves as a form of selfmedication. However, in our present study, we found that smoking was negatively associated with RBANS total score and the Visuospatial/Constructional index in male patients.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender differences in cognitive function of patients with chronic schizophrenia

Han¹,

Huang²,

Chen³

et al. 2012

Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry

120

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Schizophrenic patients have cognitive impairments, but gender differences in these cognitive deficits have had limited study. This study assessed cognitive functioning in 471 subjects including 122 male and 78 female schizophrenic patients and 141 male and 130 female healthy controls. We found that immediate memory, language, delayed memory and total RBANS scores were significantly decreased in schizophrenia compared with healthy controls for both genders. Male patients had significant lower immediate memory, delayed memory and total RBANS scores than female patients, and healthy controls showed a similar gender difference. The RBANS showed modest correlations with PANSS scores, duration of illness and antipsychotic dose (chlorpromazine equivalents). Almost all RBANS scores in the schizophrenics and healthy controls showed significant positive correlations with education. Thus, patients of both sexes with schizophrenia experienced more deteriorated performance than healthy controls on cognitive domains of immediate memory, language and delayed memory. Furthermore, male schizophrenic patients had more serious cognitive deficits than female patients in immediate and delayed memory, but not in language, visuospatial and attention indices. AbstractSchizophrenic patients have cognitive impairments, but gender differences in these cognitive deficits have had limited study. This study assessed cognitive functioning in 471 subjects including 172 male and 78 female schizophrenic patients and 141 male and 130 female healthy controls. We found that immediate memory, language, delayed memory and total RBANS scores were significantly decreased in schizophrenia compared with healthy controls for both genders. Male patients had significant lower immediate memory, delayed memory and total RBANS scores than female patients, and healthy controls showed a similar gender difference. The RBANS showed modest correlations with PANSS scores, duration of illness and antipsychotic dose (chlorpromazine equivalents). Almost all RBANS scores in the schizophrenics and healthy controls showed significant positive correlations with education. Thus, patients of both sexes with schizophrenia experienced more deteriorated performance than healthy controls on cognitive domains of immediate memory, language and delayed memory.Furthermore, male schizophrenic patients had more serious cognitive deficits than female patients in immediate and delayed memory, but not in language, visuospatial and attention indices.

show abstract

“…Avila et al (2003) have reported that nicotine reduces the number of leading (or anticipatory) saccades during smooth pursuit tasks both in people with schizophrenia and in healthy controls. There is also evidence that nicotine maintains visuospatial working memory performance in people with schizophrenia (George et al 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute effects of nicotine on visual search tasks in young adult smokers

2005

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rationale Nicotine is known to improve performance on tests involving sustained attention and recent research suggests that nicotine may also improve performance on tests involving the strategic allocation of attention and working memory. Objectives We used traditional measures and eye tracking techniques to examine the effects of nicotine on visual search tasks. Methods In experiment 1 smokers and non-smokers performed pop-out and serial search tasks. Experiment 2 used a within subject design and a more demanding search task for multiple targets. In both studies, 2-hour abstinent smokers were asked to smoke one of their own cigarettes between baseline and post-tests. Results In experiment 1, Pop-out search times were faster after nicotine, without a loss in accuracy. Similar effects were observed for serial searches, but these were significant only at a trend level. In experiment 2, nicotine facilitated a strategic change in eyemovements resulting in a higher proportion of fixations on target letters. If the cigarette was smoked on the first trial (when the task was novel), nicotine additionally reduced the total number of fixations and refixations on all letters in the display. Conclusions Nicotine improves visual search performance by speeding up search time and enabling a better focus of attention on task relevant items. This appears to reflect more efficient inhibition of eye-movements towards task irrelevant stimuli, and better active maintenance of task goals. When the task is novel, and therefore more difficult, nicotine lessens the need to refixate previously seen letters, suggesting an improvement in working memory.

show abstract

Effects of Smoking Abstinence on Visuospatial Working Memory Function in Schizophrenia

Abstract: Schizophrenic patients have impairments in cognitive function, including deficits in visuospatial working memory (VSWM).

Cited by 207 publications

References 43 publications

Visuospatial Memory Deficits Emerging During Nicotine Withdrawal in Adolescents with Prenatal Exposure to Active Maternal Smoking

Visuospatial Memory Deficits Emerging During Nicotine Withdrawal in Adolescents with Prenatal Exposure to Active Maternal Smoking

Gender differences in cognitive function of patients with chronic schizophrenia

Acute effects of nicotine on visual search tasks in young adult smokers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About