Nicotine enhances automatic temporal processing as measured by the mismatch negativity waveform

Abstract

This is the first study to demonstrate a nicotine-related enhancement of MMN amplitude to an interstimulus interval duration deviant and confirms our hypothesis that nicotine enhances preattentive temporal processing. Nicotinic agonists may represent a potential therapeutic option for individuals with abnormalities in early sensory or temporal processing related to cholinergic system abnormalities. Methodologically, our paradigm of nicotine administration in abstinent smokers is important because it resulted in both minimal withdrawal symptoms and meaningful data that are not attributable solely to relief of withdrawal.

Effects of acute nicotine on somatosensory change-related cortical responses

“…The present results show a significant impact of nicotine on somatosensory change-related cortical responses similar to the auditory (Harkrider and Hedrick, 2005;Inami et al, 2005;Baldeweg et al, 2006;Dunbar et al, 2007;Martin et al, 2009;Otsuru et al, 2012) and visual systems. In addition, nicotine's effects on response amplitude were negatively correlated with the baseline amplitude of the response.…”

“…In neurophysiological studies, electroencephalography Fisher et al, 2012a), P300 eventrelated potentials (ERPs) (Le Houezec et al, 1994;Pineda et al, 1998), P50 auditory ERP (Adler et al, 1993;Knott et al, 2010), prepulse inhibition (Kumari et al, 1997;Rissling et al, 2007) and pain-related evoked potentials (Miyazaki et al, 2009(Miyazaki et al, , 2010 have been affected by nicotine and/or smoking. As for preattentive processes for detecting sensory changes, studies using mismatch negativity (MMN) have shown enhancing effects of nicotine on the auditory (Harkrider and Hedrick, 2005;Inami et al, 2005;Baldeweg et al, 2006;Martin et al, 2009) and visual systems in healthy subjects. Positive effects of a selective nAChR agonist on auditory MMN also have been shown in healthy male subjects (Dunbar et al, 2007).…”

Visual mismatch negativity (vMMN): A review and meta-analysis of studies in psychiatric and neurological disorders

“…It is proposed that nicotine enhances cognitive performance in smokers and non-smokers probably due to sharpening of primary encoding of sensory and temporal stimuli presented outside the attentional focus (e.g., Fisher et al, 2010;Martin, Davalos, & Kisley, 2009). Nicotine is a cholinergic agonist that may also enhance the glutamatergic system and presumably through this alleviate some symptoms of schizophrenia (see also chapter 2.1 on schizophrenia).…”

An acute dose, randomized trial of the effects of CDP-Choline on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) in healthy volunteers stratified by deviance detection level

“…Strongly dependent on glutamatergic signaling, MMN is attenuated in rats, monkeys and healthy adults with high-affinity NMDA (N-methyl-Daspartate)-type glutamate receptor antagonists (Javitt et al, 1996;Tikhonravov et al 2008;Umbricht et al 2000) such as ketamine which, when combined with nicotine, fails to disrupt MMN in some but not all investigations (Mathalon et al 2014). Most frequently investigated in healthy participants with frequency deviants, nicotinic stimulation has resulted in negative (Knott et al 2006, diminishing (Knott et al 2009) and enhancing effects on MMN amplitude (Dunbar et al 2007), with the latter positive outcome also being shown with pattern (Baldeweg et al 2006), temporal (Martin et al 2009) and visual deviants . Such response variability is also seen in the relatively few studies in SZ, with nicotine not affecting frequency deviant MMN (Dulude et al 2010;Inami et al 2007), shortening latency of intensity-deviant MMN ) and in our work, "normalizing" durationdeviant MMN by increasing the diminished MMN in patients to a level comparable to that seen in healthy volunteers (Dulude et al 2010).…”