Nicotine primes attention to competing affective stimuli in the context of salient alternatives

• Published in: Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology Vol. 18; no. 1; p. 51
• Main Authors: Asgaard, Gregory L, Gilbert, David G, Malpass, Debra, Sugai, Chihiro, Dillon, Amber
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.02.2010
• Subjects: Adult; Attention - drug effects; Attention - physiology; Double-Blind Method; Emotions - drug effects; Emotions - physiology; Female; Humans; Male; Nicotine - administration & dosage; Photic Stimulation - methods; Reaction Time - drug effects; Reaction Time - physiology; Smoking; Young Adult

Despite the importance of the subject, the effects of nicotine on the interplay between affect and attentional bias are not clear. This interplay was assessed with a novel design of the Primed Attentional Competition Task (PACT). It included a 200-ms duration emotional priming picture (negative, pos...