Effects of nicotine on brain responses to emotional pictures

Abstract

Given that nicotine reduces negative affect, one would expect nicotine to have different effects on brain responses to emotionally negative stimuli than it does on responses to emotionally neutral or positive stimuli. However, no studies have assessed this possibility. The present study assessed the effects of nicotine patch versus placebo patch on brain event-related potential (ERP) responses to emotion-inducing negative, positive, and neutral color pictures in 16 smokers in a double-blind, counterbalanced, within-subjects design. The study included four experimental sessions. After overnight smoking deprivation (12 hr or more), active nicotine patches were applied to participants during one of the first two sessions and during one of the last two sessions. Placebo patches were applied during the other two sessions. Nicotine reduced frontal ERP processing voltage negativity (from 144-488 ms poststimulus onset) evoked by viewing emotionally negative pictures to a greater extent than it did when emotionally neutral pictures were viewed, whereas it had no effect on processing negativity evoked by positive pictures. Nicotine also enhanced P390 amplitudes evoked by emotionally negative pictures more than it did when emotionally neutral and positive pictures were viewed. Across picture types, nicotine (relative to placebo) reduced N300 amplitude (more at anterior and dorsal sites) and increased P390 amplitude. Overall, nicotine influenced ERPs to emotionally neutral and positive pictures less than it did to negative pictures.

Smoking abstinence and depressive symptoms modulate the executive control system during emotional information processing

“…In other words, abstinent smokers attention to task-relevant demands may be disrupted by negative emotional stimuli, and BOLD response in IFG may be an important neural marker of the interfering effects of emotion on cognition following quitting smoking. The attention modulating effects of negative emotional information in abstinent smokers is consistent with prior research demonstrating that smoking abstinence results in increased frontal processing negativity—an ERP measure of attention (Naatanen, 1982) to negative but not neutral or positive images (Gilbert et al , 2004). Furthermore, these findings may be indicative of a process in which abstinence potentiates the function of frontal control mechanisms (i.e.…”

“…Consistent with this model, nicotine withdrawal potentiates the startle response (Cinciripini et al , 2006) and amplifies electrocortical responses (Gilbert et al , 2004) to negative emotional stimuli, and reduces the hedonic rating of positive stimuli (Dawkins et al , 2007). Moreover, data from a small number of studies suggest nicotine withdrawal results in greater interference from emotional stimuli during task-relevant processes (Drobes et al , 2006; Gilbert et al , 2008; Gilbert et al , 2007; Powell et al , 2002; Rzetelny et al , 2008).…”

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

“…In the present case, the MMPI2 depression scale was used as a measure of trait disposition toward depression and depressive affect. The MMPI-2 depression scale has been found to differentiate individuals with major depressive disorder from controls with good sensitivity and specificity (Bence, Sabourin, Luty, & Thackrey, 2006; Wetzler; Kahn, Strauman, & Dubro, 1989) and to predict increases in depressive symptoms (Gilbert et al, 1998; Gilbert et al, 2002) and hemispheric EEG asymmetries in response to smoking abstinence (Gilbert et al 2004). …”

The late positive potential (LPP) in response to varying types of emotional and cigarette stimuli in smokers: A content comparison

“…Sensitization theory proposes that through conditioning, cues predicting drug delivery also became imbued of motivational significance and are able to trigger compulsive drug consumption (Robinson & Berridge, 1993). In drug users, drug related stimuli have been shown to produce electrophysiological patterns similar to those produced by emotional stimuli (Cinciripini et al, 2006; Versace et al, 2010; Gilbert et al, 2004). …”

“…A similar pattern was noted in cocaine users, who responded to cocaine-related and emotional stimuli similarly (Dunning et al, 2011). Other studies have demonstrated that drug-related stimuli evoke ERPs similar to emotional pictures in smokers (Gilbert et al, 2004; Versace et al, 2011), marijuana users (Wolfling, Flor, & Grusser, 2008), and opiate users (Lubman, Allen, Peters, & Deakin, 2008). These studies suggest that drug related stimuli acquire motivational salience in chronic drug users that rivals the significance of inherently motivational emotional stimuli, though it is not clear if drug cues vary by specific semantic content in a manner similar to that of emotional cues because most of the previously described studies reported results over heterogeneous groups of emotional pictures.…”