NICOTINE--ATTENTION, AFFECT, GENES, AND VULNERABILITY

该项目的目的是开发和探索各种技术的效用，以便更好地描述尼古丁对吸烟者和不吸烟者的注意力和情绪的影响，并将这些影响与与吸烟有关的心理脆弱性因素联系起来。作为一个群体，吸烟者很容易出现注意力和情绪问题和障碍，包括注意力缺陷、抑郁和其他负面影响相关的特征和障碍。该项目将扩展先前的注意范式，并验证旨在评估注意和情感过程的认知行为范式和电皮层范式。具体来说，该项目将描述尼古丁和尼古丁剥夺对注意力任务的影响，这些任务旨在反映不同的注意力系统。其中一些任务将评估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给侧向定位刺激的能力的影响。干扰物将包括不同认知、情感和吸烟相关潜能的刺激的系统集合。项目研究将评估经皮贴片给药尼古丁对注意力和情感功能障碍的影响，方法是测量1)注意力可分散性和注意力表现，2)情感状态，以及3)对参与刺激和干扰物的皮层电地形反应。尼古丁对偏侧注意力系统的影响将通过向中央视野呈现干扰物刺激以及通过视觉半视野呈现交替半球来评估。我们假设尼古丁会提高注意力表现并减少负面影响，特别是在那些更容易受到注意力障碍和负面影响/情绪状态影响的个体中。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。这方面的知识将有助于制定合理的治疗策略，旨在增加戒烟。在这两个阶段，我们还将对两个特定的多巴胺受体（DRD2和DRD4）进行基因分型。这些受体与吸烟、注意力缺陷障碍、药物滥用和寻求冲动感觉有关。鉴于上述各种类型的干扰物，已确定的受体基因型差异将与尼古丁对情绪和注意力表现的影响有关。

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.