Light up and see: Enhancement of the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) by nicotine

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

“…Out of 33 reviewed studies 16 evaluated obligatory sensory components beside the vMMN. The sensory processing was disturbed in 13 of them (Bottari et al, 2014;Cleary, Donkers, Evans, & Belger, 2013;Clery et al, 2012;Clery, Roux, et al, 2013;Fisher et al, 2010;Iijima et al, 1996;Kremlacek et al, 2011;Lorenzo-Lopez et al, 2004;Maekawa et al, 2013Maekawa et al, , 2011Stothart et al, 2014Stothart et al, , 2013, whereas deficits only in components related to processing of deviants was observed in two studies only (Tales & Butler, 2006;Urban et al, 2008). The almost ubiquitous impairment of sensory stimulus processing in reviewed studies suggests that vMMN impairment is not necessarily the only candidate marker for impairments of perceptual processes.…”

“…In auditory modality, tens of different substances have been investigated, starting from alcohol, caffeine, nicotine and opioids, ending in various drugs for treatment of psychiatric disorders (benzodiazepines, antipsychotic/neuroleptic drugs, GABA agonists/antagonists, adrenergic drugs, dopamine, serotonin, NMDA/glutamate), antihistamines and hormones/neuropeptides (N€ a€ at€ anen et al, 2012). In relation to vMMN, there are two studies using alcohol (He, Hu, Pakarinen, Li, & Zhou, 2014;Kenemans et al, 2010), one study on nicotine effects (Fisher et al, 2010), and one study investigating metamphetamine (MAP) effects on visual processing Even moderate doses of alcohol (blood-alcohol concentration e BAC about 0.05%) may have undesirable effects on human perception and performance, which is particularly evident and dangerous in road traffic (Heng, Hargarten, Layde, Craven, & Zhu, 2006). The narrowing of attention is one of the processes suggested to underlie the effect on human performance (e.g., Steele & Josephs, 1988).…”

“…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).…”

“…This promising result is already a good justification for any attempts to test the nicotine effects on change detection in other modalities. There is a positive report from a study where acute nicotine effects on the vMMN were investigated by Fisher et al (2010) in a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled design in nonsmoking population (n ¼ 27). The experimental paradigm had an intermodal design, where the vMMN-eliciting stimuli were vertical bars that differed in their length (long bars being standards, short ones deviants; standard to deviant ratio 3:1).…”

The potential of nicotinic enhancement of cognitive remediation training in schizophrenia

“…Nicotine and other nAChR agonists have been shown to acutely enhance sensory, alerting/attentional and mnemonic processes in schizophrenia (Depatie et al, 2002;Larrison-Faucher et al, 2004;Myers et al, 2004;Smith et al, 2006;Barr et al, 2008;Jubelt et al, 2008;AhnAllen et al, 2008;Freedman et al, 2008;Woznica et al, 2009), mimicking effects in healthy subjects (Heishman et al, 1994(Heishman et al, , 2010Knott et al, 2010;Fisher et al, 2010a) and laboratory animals (Kenney and Gould, 2008;Hahn et al, 2003;Acri et al, 1994). These effects tend to be short-lasting (depending on the compound's halflife), but by repeatedly coupling the window during which they unfold with the intense information processing challenges of a cognitive remediation training session, nAChR stimulation could optimize the training benefits and produce long-lasting cognitive benefits.…”