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Published on: July 16, 2015
Effects of Smoking Social Cues on Inhibitory Control in Smokers: An Event-Related Potential Study
Boqiang Zhao1, Haide Chen2,3
1Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, No.59 Zhongguancun Avenue, Haidian District, Beijing 100872, China.
Objective:
Reduced inhibitory control is a general characteristic of smokers and becomes increasingly pronounced in smoking-related contexts. However, research has rarely considered differences in the effects of various smoking-related cues. To fill this research gap, this study compared the effects of smoking object-related and smoking social-related cues on inhibitory control in smokers.
Methods:
We used a visual Go/NoGo paradigm with three types of long-lasting backgrounds (neutral, smoking object, and smoking social background) to record the error rates, reaction times, and amplitudes of the N2 and P3 event-related potentials (ERPs) by 25 smokers and 25 non-smokers.
Results:
(1) Smokers displayed smaller NoGo-N2 amplitudes than controls under the neutral background; (2) smokers displayed smaller NoGo-N2 amplitudes under the smoking social background and smoking object background than they did under the neutral background; (3) relative to neutral and smoking object backgrounds, smokers displayed higher commission error rates, shorter reaction times, and larger NoGo-P3 amplitudes under smoking social background.
Conclusion:
Smoking-related stimuli impair inhibitory control in smokers, especially when these stimuli are socially related.
