Effects of cigarette smoking upon frequencies of EEG alpha rhythm and finger tapping

Under the influence of nicotine, an increase in EEG alpha frequency as well as finger tapping speed has been reported from separate experiments, and it has also been shown that tapping and alpha frequencies may correlate in defined experimental settings. The present study aimed at the analysis of smoking effects using parallel recordings of both EEG and finger tapping. Twelve healthy subjects were tested in two sessions (smoking deprivation versus smoking). After smoking, both dominant alpha frequency (P less than 0.05) and tapping performance (P less than 0.001) were higher than during deprivation. In most subjects, the increase of both parameters developed in parallel, and during phases of very stable tapping the ratio of alpha and tapping frequencies was close to 2:1. Both frequencies correlated during the deprived (r = 0.6108, P = 0.035) as well as the smoking (r = 0.7009, P = 0.011) conditions. Results confirm earlier findings regarding the effect of smoking upon EEG and tapping, and the parallel changes of both parameters may be attributed to the pharmacological properties of nicotine. Besides possible peripheral and spinal effects of nicotine, the increase of tapping performance parallels the increased frequency of central nervous pacemakers.