Nicotine And Attention

Nicotine's Effects on Attention

Nicotine is said to increase attention and also to enhance memory slightly. Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scientist Dr. Elliot A. Stein and colleagues were able to identify the areas of the brain where a person's cognitive skills are affected by nicotine.

The regions of the brain found to have increased activation from nicotine are the posterior cortical and subcortical regions. These areas are associated with arousal, motor activation, and visual attention. This is the first evidence found that "nicotine-induced enhancement of parietal cortex activation is associated with improved attention".

Scientists used MRI to enable them to see what effects nicotine had on the brain during a rapid visual information-processing (RVIP) task (one that requires working memory and for the participant to sustain their attention). Their study involved fifteen smokers both with and without a 21- mg transdermal nicotine patch who performed the RVIP task while undergoing an MRI screening. All participants were scanned during each session, and performed the task twice, once with the nicotine patch and one with a placebo patch. Smokers smoked their last cigarette 15 minutes before performing the RVIP task.

When the smoker group had the placebo patch for the first scan and then the nicotine patch for the second scan, improvement in task performance was seen between the two scans. However, when the smoker group was given a nicotine patch for the first scan and then a placebo patch for the second scan, no difference in their performance was seen between scans, suggesting to the researchers that nicotine and practice interact.

This study further adds to the ability to understand the effects of nicotine on the brain; helping people to both clarify nicotine's addictive properties as well as possible therapeutic applications of the drug.