Effortful processing is a requirement for nicotine-induced improvements in memory

Rusted, Jennifer; Graupner, L.; Tennant, Allison; Warburton, David M.

doi:10.1007/s002130050682

Cited by 53 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…a statistical floor effect. Previous reports suggest the need for increased difficulty and effortful processing requirements of tasks in order to demonstrate significant effects of nicotine (Rusted et al, 1998). Therefore, it is possible that our redesigned version (used in the psychophysics experiment) might be a more sensitive design for measuring the effects of nicotine.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…It can be supposed that nicotine has its effects on higher cognitive function and involves central mechanisms, especially later cortical regions (Rusted et al, 1998), or that it acts on an earlier or more general lower level sensory or motor function including actions at the level of the peripheral nervous system (i.e. by affecting adrenaline or through increasing muscle efficiency), or by a combination of both.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nicotine improves antisaccade task performance without affecting prosaccades

Larrison

Briand

Sereno

2004

Human Psychopharmacology

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Although there is ample evidence for a cognitive-attentional benefit of the stimulant nicotine, the source of this benefit is not as well understood. One approach is to address what aspects of performance nicotine affects at a functional systems level. It is currently debated whether the benefits produced by nicotine are the effect of enhanced higher cognitive function or reflect an overall increase in general arousal. In order to address this question, the effects of nicotine on two simple eye movement tasks were studied: the saccade (S) and antisaccade (AS) tasks. Because the S and AS tasks utilize identical sensory stimuli (peripheral targets) and require identical motor responses (eye movements) but differ significantly in their cognitive demands, the use of these two tasks should enable a parsing of nicotine effects on cognitive versus sensory-motor processes. In this study, the S and AS tasks were performed by two experimental groups, task naïve subjects and highly practised subjects. For the first group, that of the task naïve subjects, nicotine gum administration resulted in a decrease in AS errors. For the second group, that of two experienced subjects tested repeatedly over a 3 week period, nicotine also produced a significant decrease in AS task errors, as well as resulting in a significant decrease in AS response times. Neither task naïve nor experienced subjects showed any effects of nicotine on the S task. Examining the effects of nicotine on highly controlled and constrained tasks such as the S and AS task may provide another level of insight into the mechanisms underlying the beneficial cognitive effects of nicotine.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nicotine improves antisaccade task performance without affecting prosaccades

Larrison

Briand

Sereno

2004

Human Psychopharmacology

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“…Nicotine has been found to improve attention and memory in animals , normal humans (Levin et al, 1998;Rusted et al, 1998) and human clinical populations such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Levin et al, 1996) and Alzheimer's (Newhouse et al, 1997;Sahakian and Jones, 1991). Although animal lesion and infusion studies suggest hippocampal circuitry plays an important role in mediating these effects-and particularly those associated with memory improvement (for a review see Resvani and Levin, 2001)-the effects of nicotine on other brain regions that play a role in memory and attention (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Effects of transdermal nicotine on lateralized identification and memory interference

McClernon

Gilbert

Radtke

2003

Human Psychopharmacology

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It has been proposed that nicotine may enhance performance on tasks requiring primarily left hemisphere (LH) resources while impairing right hemisphere (RH)-based performance. However, this hypothesis has not been directly tested using a lateralized cognitive task. The effects of transdermal nicotine administration on lateralized consonant identification and memory interference were examined in dependent smokers and never-smokers. In a double-blind placebo-controlled design, smokers (n = 24) and never-smokers (n = 24) were assigned to receive a nicotine or placebo patch. Subjects completed a lateralized letter identification task that required them to identify strings of three consonants presented in the left or right visual field while keeping a word in memory. A distinct right-visual-field (RVF) advantage was observed for consonant identification, but this effect was unaltered by nicotine or smoking status. However, nicotine decreased word memory errors on trials where consonants were presented in the RVF and increased errors on LVF trials. Nicotine may enhance LH-based cognitive performance by increasing LH cognitive resources or by reducing the influence of RVF distracting stimuli. These findings are consistent with a model of the lateralized effects of nicotine on cognitive performance.

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“…With regard to processes associated with working memory and strategic processing of information, the cholinergic agonist nicotine has been demonstrated to improve performance (Warburton et al, 2001;Rusted et al, 1998;Mancuso et al, 1999;Edginton and Rusted, 2003;Ernst et al, 2001;Levin et al, 1998;Kumari et al, 2003;Rycroft et al, 2005). Recently, Rusted et al (in press) reported three studies exploring nicotine's effects on ProM performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparable Effects of Nicotine in Smokers and Nonsmokers on a Prospective Memory Task

Rusted

Trawley

2005

Neuropsychopharmacol

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In a double-blind placebo-controlled study, we examined the effect of nicotine, a cholinergic agonist, on performance of a prospective memory (ProM) task in young adult volunteers. Volunteers were required to complete an ongoing lexical decision task while maintaining the ProM task (responding with a different button press to items containing particular target letters). Half of the volunteers were smokers, half were nonsmokers. Half of each group received a single dose (1 mg) of nicotine nasal spray before completing the task; the remaining volunteers received a matched inactive placebo spray. Nicotine improved performance on the ProM task when volunteers were able to devote resources to that task. Under a variant procedure, where volunteers completed a concurrent auditory monitoring task, ProM performance was impaired under nicotine. Results are discussed in terms of the resource model of ProM, and the arousal model of drug effects. The data suggest that ProM under the conditions tested here is a resource-needy process, and that nicotine can improve performance by increasing available resources. Increased working memory demands that encourage redirection of resources may impair ProM performance, but the conditions under which these deficits emerge depend upon the subjective allocation of resources across tasks, rather than resource availability per se. Neuropsychopharmacology (2006) 31, 1545-1549.

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Effortful processing is a requirement for nicotine-induced improvements in memory

Cited by 53 publications

References 26 publications

Nicotine improves antisaccade task performance without affecting prosaccades

Nicotine improves antisaccade task performance without affecting prosaccades

Effects of transdermal nicotine on lateralized identification and memory interference

Comparable Effects of Nicotine in Smokers and Nonsmokers on a Prospective Memory Task

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