Automatic Attention to Smoking Cues: Neural Correlates

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cue reactivity paradigms have been used to study associative and attentional mechanisms involved in drug abuse. For instance, exposure to smoking-related cues (e.g., watching someone smoke a cigarette) has been found to evoke self-reported craving and autonomic nervous system arousal (e.g., heart-rate and skin conductance). The proposed research seeks to better understand brain dynamics involving the capture of attention by smoking cues in dependent smokers. The examination of event-related brain potentials (ERP) is for studying the brain during initial exposure to picture cues. Very little smoking cue reactivity research has utilized ERP methodology, and existing studies have not addressed automatic versus controlled processing, nor have they used brain source localization techniques. The proposed study will address these issues by comparing ERP component amplitudes in response to the initial presentation of infrequently presented smoking, neutral, positive affect, and negative affect pictures. While performing this smoking cue task, participants will be engaged in a demanding attention task that is not relevant to cue type, thereby reducing voluntary attention effects on cue processing. We propose to study neural correlates of automatic attention to smoking and neutral cues among smokers, former smokers, and nonsmokers (controls). It is hypothesized that smokers will have greater ERP component (N1, P2, and N2) amplitudes in response to smoking cues relative to neutral cues, and that this effect will not be present in former smokers and nonsmokers. It is also hypothesized that these ERP differences in cue reactivity will be associated with indices of current smoking behavior and nicotine dependence. Finally, we hypothesize that attention-related areas of the brain (e.g., anterior cingulate cortex and insular cortex) will be sources for smoking cue elicited components of the ERP waveform. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This study will contribute to greater understanding of automatic attentional processing in response to smoking cues among smokers. Knowledge obtained about how smoking-related cues initially activate neural processes among smokers may inform the development of treatment programs that target the unique characteristics of individual smokers.