Effects of nicotine on visuospatial attentional orienting in non-smokers

Nicotine is a highly addictive substance, suggested to be in part due to its cognitive enhancing effects in the attentional domain. Improvements in stimulus selection with nicotine have been reported but its effects on visual-spatial selective attention are unclear. This study utilized event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the acute effects of nicotine on selective attention in non-smokers performing a Posner-type visuo-spatial task. The attentional processing of visual-spatial locations is reflected in the P1 ERP component, which represents earlier stages of visual analysis. 24 non-smokers received nicotine gum (6 mg) in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, repeated measures design. Behavioral performance and ERPs were assessed in response to target locations preceded by valid, invalid and neutral cues. Nicotine did not affect behavioral performance indices. P1 amplitudes were greater in valid and neutral cue trials compared to invalid cue trials and acute nicotine administration (vs. placebo) was found to increase P1 amplitudes in the right hemisphere, particularly in valid cue trials. In addition, in high symptomatic subjects (as indexed by greater increases in heart rate post-administration), nicotine (vs. placebo) produced greater P1 amplitudes in valid cue trials. The study concludes that nicotine enhanced visuospatial selective attention with regards to early visual encoding and analysis. These results demonstrate support in general for the attentional effects of nicotine and nicotinic agonists and they specifically extend these effects to include orienting of visual-spatial attention.