Effects of nicotine and depressive traits on affective priming of lateralized emotional word identification.

Abstract

Based on evidence suggesting that depressive traits, emotional information processing, and the effects of nicotine may be mediated by lateralized brain mechanisms, analyses assessed the influence of depressive traits and nicotine patch on emotional priming of lateralized emotional word identification in 61 habitual smokers. Consistent with hypotheses, nicotine as compared to placebo patch enhanced right visual field (RVF) emotional word identification while decreasing performance of emotional word identification in the left visual field (LVF). Nicotine also enhanced positive affect and decreased negative affect. Consistent with the Heller model of depression, scoring high in depressive traits was associated with a general decrease in LVF emotional word identification. Additionally, this general LVF deficit was especially pronounced for positive word identification in individuals scoring high in trait depression. Positive primes facilitated positive target identification in the RVF and negative primes facilitated negative target identification in the LVF. Thus, nicotine promoted a LVF word-identification deficit similar to that observed in those with depressive traits. However, nicotine also enhanced RVF processing and reduced negative affect, while it enhanced positive affect.

Nicotine differentially modulates antisaccade eye-gaze away from emotional stimuli in nonsmokers stratified by pre-task baseline performance

“…Besides the use of emotional prime and target stimuli, the current study was different from previous ones in that it used nicotine patches that produce gradual rises in blood nicotine concentration and are very difficult or impossible for most subjects to identify as nicotine patches (Gilbert et al 2003; Gilbert, Rabinovich et al 2008). The nicotine patches used by Petrovsky et al (2012) and most others in the field that are easily identified as containing nicotine by a great majority of subjects (Petrovsky et al 2012).…”

“…The pars opercularis region of the right inferior frontal gyrus appears to play an important and unique role in modulating some kinds of impulsivity (reviewed by Tabibnia et al 2011) and a substantial body of research suggests greater left hemisphere (LH) attentional biases for positively valenced emotional stimuli but greater right hemisphere (RH) attentional bias for negatively valenced stimuli (Davidson 1992; Dolcos et al 2004; Pizzagalli et al, 2003; Smith and Bulman-Fleming 2005). There are also hemispheric asymmetries in brain and perceptual responses to the acute administration of nicotine (Carlson et al 2009; Gilbert, Carlson et al 2008; Gilbert et al 1989, 2004, 2005; Rose et al 2003). …”

“…The use of emotional targets and primes was in part based on evidence that in smokers, nicotine, relative to placebo, reduces attention to and distraction by negative stimuli (relative to positive and to neutral stimuli) as assessed by eye-gaze (Gilbert, Rabinovich et al 2008), brain activation (Engelmann et al 2011; Gilbert et al 2007), emotional prime stimuli preceding targets (Asgaard et al 2010), and RT during task demanding significant executive control and resources (Gilbert et al 2005). Thus, we hypothesized that nicotine would reduce AST RT and increase accuracy on trials with emotionally negative primes and with emotionally negative peripheral stimuli relative to positive and neutral stimuli.…”

Depressive symptoms and responses to cigarette pack warning labels among Mexican smokers.

“…For example, nonsmokers with depressive symptoms have stronger neural responses to negative emotional information than those without DS (Felder et al, 2012). Among smokers, nicotine withdrawal promotes greater negative emotional interference on cognition (Froeliger et al, 2012; Gilbert et al, 2007)—the effects of which become worse with increasing levels of baseline depressive symptom severity (Froeliger et al, 2012; Gilbert et al, 2008). Furthermore, research on “depressive realism” suggests that persons with elevated DS engage in relatively more processing of negative information (Keller, Lipkus, & Rimer, 2002; Moore & Fresco, 2012).…”

The influence of tobacco consumption on the relationship between schizotypy and hemispheric asymmetry

“…For instance, decreased hemispheric asymmetry in patients with schizophrenia seems most prevalent in the unmedicated state (Mohr, Krummenacher, et al, 2005;Purdon, Woodward, & Flor-Henry, 2001 for overviews) and cognitive impairments in first episode patients with schizophrenia were more pronounced in non-smokers as compared to nicotine smokers (Zabala et al, 2009). In healthy individuals dopamine agonists (including nicotine) might enhance language functions (Gentry et al, 2000;Gilbert et al, 2008;Knecht et al, 2004;McClernon et al, 2003), which potentially stabilizes hemispheric asymmetry rather than attenuates it, particularly when reporting relatively elevated schizotypy (Mohr, Krummenacher, et al, 2005).…”