A multimodal genomic imaging study on the effects of nicotine and nicotine withdrawal on brain circuits using simultaneous EEG/EMG, fMRI and PET

尼古丁正在改善注意力能力，这沿着大脑中注意力网络的激活。然而，到目前为止，尼古丁依赖受试者是否使用尼古丁进行自我药物治疗仍是一个悬而未决的问题，这些受试者患有亚临床或临床注意力缺陷，可能会维持尼古丁成瘾。在本研究中，我们调查了健康受试者和精神分裂症患者谁经常表现出非常低的注意能力与功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和电生理（EEG）在注意需要的任务，以评估注意网络活动的水平。预计低注意力网络活动（基线状态期间、尼古丁激发后和戒烟后）可预测尼古丁依赖程度，包括戒烟后戒断症状的强度和复发率。此外，我们预计α 4 β 2 nAch受体基因型内的功能变异与注意力能力相关，并通过扩展与尼古丁依赖相关。

Nicotine is improving attentional capacity which goes along with an activation of the attentional network in the brain. So far, however, it is unresolved whether nicotine is used for the purpose of self-medication by those nicotine-dependent subjects who suffer from subclinical or clinical attentional deficits which may sustain nicotine addiction. In the present study, we investigate healthy subjects and schizophrenic patients who frequently show very low attentional capacity with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electrophysiology (EEG) during attention-requiring tasks to assess the level of attentional network activity. It is anticipated that low attentional network activity (during baseline condition, after nicotine challenge and after withdrawal) predicts the degree of nicotine dependence including the strength of withdrawal symptoms and relapse rate after smoking cessation. In addition, we expect that functional variations within alpha4beta2 nAch receptor genotype are associated with attentional capacity and -by extension - with nicotine dependence.