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Abstract:
Abstract: Nicotine reportedly improves spatial attention, but
enhanced alertness may also play a role. Most nicotine studies have
examined smokers, who were perhaps suffering from withdrawal at the
time of cognitive testing. We examined nicotine's effects on
spatial attention and alertness in non-smokers in two experiments
using two covert orienting tasks. In Experiment 1, subjects
performed an endogenous orienting of attention task. Nicotine,
delivered by transdermal patch, decreased reaction times with no
specific attentional effect. Nicotine did, however, improve EEG and
self-rated measures of alertness. In Experiment 2, subjects
performed matched endogenous and exogenous orienting tasks.
Nicotine again improved endogenous task performance, reducing
errors and reaction times for a subset of subjects, but with no
specific attentional effect. Yet nicotine again improved subjective
alertness. The exogenous task failed to show validity or drug
effects. We conclude that nicotine increases alertness in
non-smokers.
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