The effects of nicotine on the attentional modification of the acoustic startle response in nonsmokers

Abstract

Rationale & Objective-Research on nicotine and attention has mainly utilized samples of deprived smokers and tasks requiring volitional responses, raising the question of whether nicotine improves attention or simply alleviates withdrawal or improves motor speed. This study used the startle eyeblink reflex to assess nicotine effects on auditory attention in non-smokers.Method-Sixty-seven healthy young adult non-smokers completed a tone discrimination task. Acoustic startle probes were presented 60, 120, 240, or 4500 ms after onset of 2/3 of the tones and during intertrial intervals. Attention was assessed via 1) short-lead prepulse inhibition (PPI) of startle, a measure of early filtering; 2) long-lead prepulse facilitation (PPF) of startle, a measure of sustained processing, and 3) the modification of PPI and PPF by focused attention. Participants completed two lab sessions, once while wearing a 7 mg transdermal nicotine patch, and once while wearing a placebo patch. Patches were administered in a double-blind procedure.Results-Nicotine increased overall PPI, η p 2 = .09. Attention increased long-lead PPF η p 2 = .25, but not short-lead PPI. Nicotine did not reliably enhance early or late controlled attentional processing in the sample overall. However, correlational analyses demonstrated that nicotine most improved attentional modification of short-lead PPI among participants with the weakest early attentional processing under placebo conditions. Conclusions-Nicotine enhanced early attentional filtering in general, and the effects of nicotine on early, focused attention were dependent upon individual differences in placebo levels of attentional processing. The present data suggest the effects of nicotine on attention extend beyond the alleviation of withdrawal and simple motor speeding.

Sensorimotor Gating is Associated with CHRNA3 Polymorphisms in Schizophrenia and Healthy Volunteers

“…Studies in humans (Baschnagel and Hawk, 2008;Della Casa et al, 1998;Duncan et al, 2001;Hong et al, 2008;Kumari et al, 1996Kumari et al, , 1997 and animals (Acri et al, 1994(Acri et al, , 1995Curzon et al, 1994;Faraday et al, 1999;Schreiber et al, 2002;Spielewoy and Markou, 2004) have shown that the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) agonist, nicotine, enhances PPI. These findings, taken together with the idea that schizophrenia patients have a strongly increased likelihood of smoking (for reviews, see Dalack et al, 1998;Ripoll et al, 2004), have led to the 'self-medication hypothesis' that proposes that schizophrenia patients may attempt to transiently remedy otherwise deficient attentional processes; this effect, however, could vary depending on genetic background (Kumari and Postma, 2005).…”

Smoking and depression: is smoking cessation effective?

“…The effect of nicotine on controlled early focused attention appears to be related to baseline attention processing. Individuals with poorer attention may benefit more from nicotine [Baschangel and Hawk, 2008]. By using functional MRI in order to determine the neural substrates of nicotine's effects on a sustained attention it was found that performance was associated with activation in a fronto-parietal-thalamic network.…”

Cognitive Effects of Nicotine

“…However, nicotine use enhances performance in several domains of cognitive functioning, including attention, working memory, and complex task performance in satiated smokers and nonsmokers (Baschnagel and Hawk, 2008;Ernst et al, 2001;Foulds et al, 1996;Heishman, 1998;Lawrence et al, 2002;Meinke et al, 2006;Mumenthaler et al, 1998;Trimmel and Wittberger, 2004).…”