TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2014//
TI  - Nicotine reduces distraction under low perceptual load
JO  - Psychopharmacology
A1  - Behler, Oliver
A1  - Breckel, Thomas P. K.
A1  - Thiel, Christiane M.
SP  - 1269
EP  - 1277
VL  - 232
IS  - 7
N2  - RATIONALE: Several studies provide evidence that nicotine alleviates the detrimental effects of distracting sensory stimuli. It is been suggested that nicotine may either act as a stimulus filter that prevents irrelevant stimuli entering awareness or by enhancing the attentional focus to relevant stimuli via a boost in processing capacity. <br><br>OBJECTIVES: To differentiate between these two accounts, we administered nicotine to healthy non-smokers and investigated distractor interference in a visual search task with low and high perceptual load to tax processing capacity. <br><br>METHODS: Thirty healthy non-smokers received either 7 mg transdermal nicotine or a matched placebo in a double blind within subject design 1 h prior to performing the visual search task with different fixation distractors. <br><br>RESULTS: Nicotine reduced interference of incongruent distractors, but only under low-load conditions, where distractor effects were large. No effects of nicotine were observed under high-load conditions. Highly distractible subjects showed the largest effects of nicotine. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that nicotine acts primarily as a stimulus filter that prevents irrelevant stimuli from entering awareness in situations of high distractor interference.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0033-3158
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-014-3761-5
ID  - ref1
ER  -