Nicotine effects on associative learning in human non-smokers.

ABSTRACT: Tobacco smoking is the most common preventable cause of death in the US. Nicotine is considered the primary constituent responsible for tobacco addiction. Its paradoxically high abuse potential may reflect behavioral control by drug-associated stimuli, which appears to play a larger role for tobacco dependence than for other abused drugs. We tested a potential explanation, hypothesizing that nicotine enhances associative learning, the mechanism underlying the conditioning of drug-associated stimuli. Thirty-two non-smokers were exposed to transdermal nicotine (7 mg/24 h) and placebo in a double-blind cross-over study and tested with behavioral paradigms designed to isolate incidental stimulus-stimulus or stimulus-response learning. The stop signal task required speeded gender judgments of f

SUBMITTER: Hahn B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6135766 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature