Neural correlates of performance monitoring in daily and intermittent smokers

Abstract

OBJECTIVES Despite efforts that have increased smoking regulation, cigarette taxation, and social stigma, cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, and a significant personal and public economic burden. In the U.S., intermittent smokers comprise approximately 20% of all smokers and represent a stable, non-dependent group that may possess protective factors that prevent the transition to dependence. One possibility is that intermittent smokers have intact CNS frontal regulatory and control mechanisms that enable resistance to nicotine-induced changes. METHODS The present study measured inhibitory control using a flanker task and a go-nogo continuous performance tasks in daily dependent smokers, intermittent non-dependent smokers, and nonsmokers. Event-related potential (ERP) measures of were concurrently recorded to measure performance monitoring via event-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) components during error trials for each task. RESULTS In both tasks, behavioral and ERN measures did not differ between groups; however, amplitude of the Pe component was largest among intermittent smokers. CONCLUSIONS Thus, intermittent smokers differed from both daily smokers and nonsmokers on error processing, potentially revealing neuroprotective cognitive processes in nicotine dependence. SIGNIFICANCE A better understanding of factors that mediate behavioral regulation may provide novel treatment approaches that help individuals achieve controlled smoking or cessation.

Insula Demonstrates a Non-Linear Response to Varying Demand for Cognitive Control and Weaker Resting Connectivity With the Executive Control Network in Smokers

“…Thus the majority of cognitive controlrelated brain regions appear to be unaffected by smoking, at least in performance of the PFT. The commonality in activation between smokers and non-smokers across control processing regions outside of R aINS may be another reason for the inconsistency in prior task-based findings of control deficits in smokers (Buzzell et al, 2014;de Ruiter et al, 2012;Evans et al, 2009;Franken et al, 2010;Luijten et al, 2011;Rass et al, 2014).…”

“…Behavioral and neurobiological deficits of inhibitory processing are often dissociated in smokers (Buzzell et al, 2014;de Ruiter et al, 2012;Evans et al, 2009), and consistent effects on performance monitoring have also proven elusive (Franken et al, 2010;Luijten et al, 2011;Rass et al, 2014). These disparate task-based results are in contrast to resting network connectivity, which is more consistently dysregulated in smokers (for a review, see Fedota and Stein, 2015;Sutherland et al, 2012).…”

Resting-state EEG, impulsiveness, and personality in daily and nondaily smokers

“…Participants were recruited as part of a study on nondaily smokers; additional methods and results are reported elsewhere (Rass et al, 2014). Groups were classified according to the following criteria.…”

“…The remarkable ability of intermittent smokers to use a highly addictive substance without transitioning to nicotine dependence may depend on processes that would be of great interest in both prevention and treatment development. Consequently, the neurophysiological and personality factors that differentiate these two groups of smokers have received increasing interest (Shiffman et al, 2009, Shiffman et al, 2012, Kvaavik et al, 2014, Rass et al, 2014). The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a measure of synchronized neural activity that is particularly promising as a sensitive measure of the acute and chronic effects of nicotine use (Lerman et al, 2009).…”

Food specific inhibitory control under negative mood in binge‐eating disorder: Evidence from a multimethod approach*

“…The precise outcome variable for inhibitory control is the ability to conduct antisaccades (directing gaze away from an appearing stimuli). Related brain processes of inhibitory control comprise conflict processing (as reflected by the ERP N2), for example, when the task requires participants not to look at a palatable food item, and performance monitoring, which is associated with the error-related negativity/error negativity (ERN/Ne) during the monitoring of erroneous behavior (e.g., Geliebter, Benson, Pantazatos, Hirsch, & Carnell, 2016;Rass, Fridberg, & O'Donnell, 2014;Schulte, Muller-Oehring, Sullivan, & Pfefferbaum, 2012;Smith, Iredale, & Mattick, 2016).…”