Attention, memory, and cigarette smoking

Abstract

Four experiments tested the effects of smoking one cigarette on verbal memory and attention. In Experiment I, 18 men were tested under three conditions in a repeated-measures design (pretrial smoking, posttrial smoking, no smoking). Recall of a 50-word list was tested immediately and after intervals of 10 and 45 min. Pretrial smoking resulted in improved recall 10 and 45 min after learning, but not immediately. Posttrial smoking was ineffectual. In Experiment II, three posttrial smoking intervals (1, 5, and 30 min after presentation of a 20-word list) were compared with pretrial smoking and no smoking using a between-subjects design. The 76 light, moderate, and heavy smokers in Experiment II smoked a 1.38 mg nicotine cigarette and were tested 24 h later. Improved recall occurred for pretrial smoking, but not for any posttrial smoking interval and for light and moderate smokers only. Experiment III compared a low (0.40 mg) and high (1.38 mg) level of nicotine cigarette in light and heavy smokers using pretrial smoking. The high-nicotine cigarette resulted in improved recall for both immediate- and delayed-recall tests. The low-nicotine cigarette was less effective. Light and heavy smokers differed in effect of smoking on heart rate, but not in effect of smoking on recall. Experiment IV found no effect of smoking on depth of processing. The possible mechanisms by which nicotine affects recall are discussed.

Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Cigarette Deprivation in the Prediction of Anxious Responding among Trauma-Exposed Smokers: A Laboratory Test

“…This possible methodological artifact might be explored in future work to determine whether the CO 2 -enriched air paradigm is indeed useful in the comparison of smoking versus cigarette deprivation in anxious responsivity. Lastly, since nicotine administration has been shown to have acute attentionamplifying effects as a stimulant drug (Peeke & Peeke, 1984;Rusted & Warburton, 1992), it is possible that the smoking-asusual group was more attuned to their anxiety and to the laboratory challenge paradigm amplifying anxiety levels overall.…”

Nicotinic systems and cognitive function

“…A variety of studies have reported acute, nicotine-induced facilitation of cognitive function in humans (Andersson and Post 1974;Houston et al 1978;Peeke and Peeke 1984;Warburton etal. 1986;West and Hack 1991).…”

Effects of drugs of abuse on hippocampal plasticity and hippocampus-dependent learning and memory: contributions to development and maintenance of addiction

“…In addition to its rewarding effects, acute nicotine has cognitive enhancing properties in humans. Specifically, acute nicotine administration enhances attention (Parrott and Craig 1992;Bates et al 1995;Hahn et al 2007;Hong et al 2011), learning and memory (Mangan and Golding 1983;Peeke and Peeke 1984;Warburton et al 1986;Colrain et al 1992), and information processing (Wesnes and Warburton 1983;Provost and Woodward 1991;for review, see Sherwood 1993). In agreement with human studies, there is a great body of evidence suggesting that acute nicotine augments hippocampus-dependent contextual and spatial learning and memory while not affecting hippocampus-independent subtypes of learning (e.g., cued learning) in rodents.…”