Evidence of more rapid stimulus evaluation following cigarette smoking

Experienced male smokers ( > 15 cigarettes daily) performed a rapid visual information processing (RVIP) task requiring the detection of sequences of three consecutive odd or even digits in a series presented singly on a TV screen, at a rate of 100 digits/minute. Approximately 80 targets occured every 10 minutes. All subjects took part in three test sessions: (a) Baseline of 10 minutes on the RVIP task, (2) treatment phase of 10 minutes smoking one cigarette (0.9mg or 1.5mg standard machine delivery of nicotine) or not smoking (NS), (3) posttreatment phase of 20 minutes on the task. Before these morning sessions subjects abstained from smoking for at least 12 hours. Smoking increased the number of correct detections and decreased response time compared with pre-smoking baseline and NS sessions. Analysis of vertex Event-Related Potentials to correct detections revealed a significant reduction in P300 latency following smoking compared to NS sessions. It is suggested that smoking has speeded up stimulus evaluation processes in these individuals. These data are consistent with the common self-report by smokers that smoking aids concentration.