Nicotine Deprivation Effects on the Dissociated Components of Simple Reaction Time

The effect of smoking abstinence on the dissociated components of a simple reaction-time response was investigated. 7 subjects completed two experimental sessions conducted one week apart. Each experimental session was comprised of two tests. The first test consisted of abstinent baseline measures, while the second test was administered after smoking either an investigator-supplied nicotinised or denicotinised cigarette. A within-subjects design was utilized which permitted each subject to be their own control. Interestingly, the smoking of either experimenter-controlled cigarette (nicotinised or denicotinised) reliably decreased the subjects' desire to smoke. More importantly, however, was that only the nicotinised cigarette had any influence on simple reaction time. Moreover, this decrease in reaction time was isolated within the premotor or cognitive processes. In fact, there was no evidence that the smoking of a nicotinised cigarette had any effect on the motor-time component of this task. These findings are relevant for two reasons, (1) performance decrements due to smoking abstinence were independent of the urge or craving to smoke and (2) nicotine affects cognitive and motor processes of a simple reaction-time task differently.