Orienting bias towards electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) cues

Abnormal attentional biases for tobacco cues have been observed in the dot-probe task. With a recent increase in electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) use, researchers have investigated the effect of ENDS use on early and later stages of attentional bias. Studies have provided support for later-stage attentional biases among ENDS users but not an orienting bias, which may be difficult to detect with smaller sample sizes, and due to low reliability. The present study tested orienting bias among young adult ENDS users and nonusers to ENDS-related images using a modified dot-probe task.

A total of 224 participants were assigned to an ENDS user group (n = 110) or a control group (n = 114) following their history of ENDS use. A modified version of the dot-probe task was used where a rotated target letter ("T") appeared shortly after image (ENDS-related and neutral) offset, requiring a directional response.

The ENDS group exhibited a significantly larger ENDS-related orienting bias compared to the control group in response time and accuracy. A habituation effect was also observed, with the ENDS-related attentional bias being restricted for the first epoch of trials. Consistent with previous studies, the ENDS-related attentional bias exhibited low internal reliability.

A significant but short-lived orienting bias towards ENDS-related cues in ENDS users was observed. Similar to other substances of abuse, ENDS use affects early-stage attentional processes. Our findings also suggest ways to more robustly measure such early-stage attentional biases in ENDS users.