Eye movements to smoking-related cues: effects of nicotine deprivation

According to recent theories of addiction, nicotine deprivation may influence biases in the orienting and maintenance of attention on smoking-related cues.

We examined the effect of nicotine deprivation on different aspects of attentional biases for smoking-related cues.

Smokers' eye movements to smoking-related and control pictures were assessed during a visual probe task under deprived and non-deprived conditions.

When deprived, smokers maintained their gaze for longer on smoking-related than control cues, relative to when non-deprived. Deprivation also increased craving and pleasantness ratings of smoking cues. Across both deprived and non-deprived conditions, smokers were more likely to shift their gaze towards smoking cues and were faster to respond to probes replacing smoking cues, relative to non-smoking cues, but these attentional bias measures were not significantly affected by the deprivation manipulation.

Results suggest a selective effect of deprivation on the maintenance of attention on smoking-related cues.