Impairments of facial detection in tobacco use disorder: baseline data and impact of smoking duration

Abstract

Objective: Chronic tobacco consumption, classified as tobacco use disorder (TUD), has been associated with a variety of health problems. Investigations of face processing in TUD are hampered by lack of evidence. Here, we evaluated facial detection in TUD and assessed test-retest reliability for a facial detection task. Methods: Participants were instructed to detect the orientation (either left or right) of a face when it was presented with a face/non-face pair on the monitor screen, using Bayesian entropy estimation. Bland-Altman analysis and intraclass correlation coefficients were used to test the reliability of the task. The general linear model and Bayesian statistics were then used to evaluate differences between TUD (n=48) and healthy controls (n=34). Results: The reliability of the task was high for the 96 stimuli presentations. Slower reaction times (p o 0.001) and lower discrimination index (p o 0.001) were observed in the TUD group than for healthy controls. Mediation analysis indicated direct effects of smoking duration on reaction time (p o 0.001) and discrimination index (p o 0.001). Conclusions: Overall, we observed high reliability of this task and reduction of facial detection in tobacco use disorder. We conclude our findings are significant for public health initiatives and call for follow-up studies.

Effects of Nicotine Gum Administration on Vision (ENIGMA-Vis): Study Protocol of a Double-Blind, Randomized, and Controlled Clinical Trial

“…As observed in our past studies (de Almeida et al, 2018;Fernandes et al, 2018b,c;Silva et al, 2020), tobacco addiction resulted in early-stage visual processing impairments. However, smoking comes in the form of (i) smoke absorption and (ii) the consumption of numerous health-damaging compounds (nicotine is one of the numerous existing components) (Silva et al, 2020). In the mammalian brain, nAChR isoforms are expressed on mesolimbic and nigrostriatal neurons.…”

“…Studies have shown that more prolonged duration of smoking, in years, resulted in an increased risk of visual loss (e.g., tobacco amblyopia and age-related macular degeneration) as observed using some techniques (e.g., event-related potentials and contrast sensitivity) (Rizzo and Lessell, 1993;Pickworth et al, 1997;Erskine et al, 2004;Fernandes et al, 2018b). The current consensus is that smoking affects vision (Conrin, 1980;Kunchulia et al, 2014;Arda et al, 2015;Fernandes et al, 2018b,c;Silva et al, 2020). However, this topic deserves further investigation as there are questions about the extent of how cigarette affects the (i) lens of the eyes, (ii) pupil, (iii) retina, and (iv) visual pathways.…”

Eye tracking impairments in children with protein-energy malnutrition

“…Activities such as the maze test and the seven errors test demand mastery of the executive function, one of the most complex aspects of cognition, encompassing information selection, integration of current information to those previously memorised, planning, monitoring and cognitive flexibility [26]. As such, although not being able to extrapolate results, we may indicate the possibility of the existence of deficits in "superior" processing cortical regions, as well as in the "lower" level processing [27,28]. Supervision in the school with the participant children and collaborating teachers allow us to understand that the abilities of visual perception include capacity to recognise images once seen without attaching meaning to them and recognizing the same symbol in different forms.…”

Eye movement impairments in children with malnutrition

“…Psychophysical studies of basic visual function, such as contrast sensitivity, in some diseases (Fernandes et al, 2020a; Shoshina et al, 2021; Silva et al, 2021) revealed the importance of understanding basic processes that are related to sensorial alterations and the impact on higher‐order processes. Early visual processing consists of the decomposition of complex stimuli (e.g., visual scenes) into elementary stimuli that comprise low, medium and high spatial frequencies.…”