Separate and combined effects of scopolamine and nicotine on retrieval-induced forgetting

Proficiency of information processing is likely to derive from a combination of effective processing of relevant information and efficient inhibition of unwanted or irrelevant material. Compromised inhibitory processes have been associated with the memory deficits in dementia and the elderly. These deficits in inhibition could be directly related to the reduced cholinergic function evident in dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT). Scopolamine, a cholinergic antagonist, has been associated with disinhibition. Nicotine, a cholinergic agonist, has been associated with enhanced focus and reduced intrusions in both healthy adults and people with dementia.

This study examines the separate and combined effects of nicotine and scopolamine on inhibitory processes using retrieval induced forgetting (RIF).

In two studies, minimally deprived smokers received either nicotine or no nicotine, in the second study combined with placebo, 0.3 or 0.5 mg SC scopolamine. All volunteers completed the RIF procedure providing within-subject measures of inhibition in an episodic recall paradigm.

Nicotine did not modulate recall of practised exemplars but it did increase inhibition of unpractised exemplars. Consistent with an effect on encoding, scopolamine reduced recall for all exemplars. Scopolamine did not differentially affect practised or unpractised exemplars, relative to the control words.

Independent of its potential to influence memory at encoding, nicotine can affect task performance by inhibiting unpractised (and by implication, irrelevant) material, thereby reducing interference and benefiting the task in hand. The absence of effects of scopolamine on inhibition in the RIF paradigm argues for a more complex subdivision of "inhibitory" processes, which may be differentially influenced by cholinergic blockade.