Attention bias in nicotine withdrawal and under stress

Drug motivation models postulate that attention biasing toward smoking-related cues is a cognitive mechanism supporting continued or renewed drug use, and they predict that drug use history, deprivation, and distress should modulate the extent of this bias. The present study used the modified Stroop paradigm to extend past research regarding attention biasing toward smoking and unpleasant, pleasant, and neutral words among adult nonsmokers and daily smokers. Both nonsmokers and smokers showed differential attention toward unpleasant and pleasant cues, particularly pleasant cues, but did not show a unique bias toward smoking-related stimuli. Results suggested that, among smokers, nicotine deprivation and exogenous stress (threat of electric shock) have a nonadditive effect on attention toward pleasant cues but no effect on attention to smoking cues specifically. Similarly, instructing smokers that they would have an opportunity to smoke did not significantly increase the bias of nicotine-deprived smokers' attention toward smoking-related cues, relative to arousing unpleasant and pleasant cues. Overall, results suggest that smokers' attention may be biased toward both smoking-related and other salient cues when deprived of nicotine and anticipating an opportunity to smoke. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).