No effect of cigarette smoking on electroencephalographic nonlinearity

The Gaussian surrogate-date procedure was applied to the measurement of the effect of cigarette smoking on the dimensional complexity of normal, resting EEG. Evidence of significant nonlinearity in the EEG was obtained, replicating previous results. However, unlike EEG dimensional complexity, EEG nonlinearity (difference between original and surrogate data) was not affected by smoking. This indicates that, under resting conditions, smoking/nicotine may have a modulating effect on input from the reticular activating system, with such input having a global, linearizing effect on cortical dynamics. Nonlinear dynamics resulting from intracortical processes appear not to be affected.