Effects of a low dose of transdermal nicotine on information processing

The objective of this research was to assess the effect of a low dose of nicotine (7 mg/24 h), administered through a transdermal device, on the cognitive processes of subjects who were slightly dependent smokers. Sixteen smokers were chosen as subjects using a French version of Fagerström's Test of Nicotine Dependence. Under suboptimal alertness conditions the subjects were faced with a choice reaction time (CRT) task. Two conditions of signal quality (intact or degraded) and two conditions of fore period (FP) (short or long) were used during two different experimental sessions (nicotine or placebo). At the same time, the subjects filled in a mood questionnaire and took part in a critical flicker fusion (CFF) determination test. The results obtained suggest that nicotine improves the subjective state of alertness of the subjects and enables them, despite the suboptimal state, to maintain a constant performance level during a CRT task. Neither an effect of nicotine on the CFF nor any interaction between the nicotine, the signal quality or the duration of the FP were observed. The conclusion to be drawn from the results is that nicotine has an enabling effect, but the results do not allow the determination of the precise site of this effect among the different stages of information processing.