NICOTINE--ATTENTION, AFFECT, GENES, AND VULNERABILITY

该项目的目的是开发和探索旨在更好地描述尼古丁对吸烟者和从不吸烟者的注意力和影响的影响的技术的实用性，并将这些影响与吸烟相关的心理脆弱性因素联系起来。 作为一个群体，吸烟者容易受到注意力和情绪问题和障碍的影响，包括注意力缺陷，抑郁症和其他与负面影响有关的特征和障碍。 该项目将扩展以前的注意力范式，并验证旨在评估注意力和情感过程的认知行为和皮层电范式。 具体而言，该项目将描述尼古丁和尼古丁剥夺对旨在反映不同注意力系统的注意力任务的影响。 其中一些任务将评估在面对外围干扰时将注意力集中在中心任务上的能力。 其他任务将评估尼古丁对将注意力分配到横向刺激的能力的影响。 分散注意力的因素包括系统地收集认知、情感和吸烟相关潜力不同的刺激。 项目研究将通过测量1）注意力分散和注意力表现，2）情感状态和3）对关注刺激和干扰物的皮层电地形图反应，评估经皮贴剂给药尼古丁对注意力和情感功能障碍的影响。 尼古丁对偏侧注意力系统的影响将通过向中央视野以及通过视觉半视野呈现向交替半球呈现干扰物刺激来评估。 我们假设尼古丁会增强注意力表现并最大限度地减少负面影响，特别是在更容易出现注意力障碍和负面影响/情绪状态的个体中。 研究的第二阶段将评估和比较尼古丁对非吸烟者和吸烟者的上述注意力影响。 这些知识将有助于制定合理的治疗策略，旨在提高戒烟率。 在这两个阶段，我们还将对两种特异性多巴胺受体（DRD 2和DRD 4）进行基因分型。 这些受体与吸烟、注意力缺陷障碍、药物滥用和冲动感觉寻求有关。 基因型中确定的受体差异将与尼古丁对情绪和注意力表现的影响有关，考虑到上述各种类型的干扰物。

The objective of this project is to develop and explore the utility of techniques designed to better characterize the effects of nicotine on attention and affect in smokers and never-smokers, and to relate these effects to psychological vulnerability factors associated with smoking. As a group, smokers are vulnerable to both attentional and emotional problems and disorders, including attention-deficit, depression, and other negative-affect-related traits and disorders. The project will extend previous attentional paradigms and validate cognitive-behavioral and electrocortical paradigms designed to assess attentional and affective processes. Specifically, the project will characterize effects of nicotine and nicotine deprivation on attentional tasks designed to reflect different attentional systems. Some of these tasks will assess the ability to focus attention on a central task in the face of peripheral distractors. Other tasks will assess the effects of nicotine on the ability to allocate attention to laterally positioned stimuli. Distractors will include systematic collections of stimuli that differ cognitively, affectively, and in smoking- related potential. Project studies will assess the effects of transdermal-patch administered nicotine on attentional and affective dysfunction by measuring 1) distractability and attentional performance, 2) affective state, and 3) electrocortical topographic responses to attended stimuli and distractors. The impact of nicotine on lateralized attentional systems will be assessed by presenting distractor stimuli to a central visual field as well as to alternate hemispheres by means of visual half-field presentations. We hypothesize that nicotine will enhance attentional performance and minimize negative affect, especially in individuals more vulnerable to attentional dysfunction and negative affect/mood states. The second phase of the research will assess and compare the above attentional effects of nicotine in nonsmokers and smokers. This knowledge will be useful in developing rationally-based treatment strategies aimed at increasing smoking abstinence. During both phases, we will also genotype two specific dopamine receptors (DRD2 and DRD4). These receptors have been associated with smoking, attention deficit disorder, drug abuse, and impulsive sensation seeking. Ascertained receptor differences in genotype will be related to the effects of nicotine on mood and attentional performance, given the various types of distractors aforementioned.