Poster presented at the 18th Meeting of the Hellenic Society for Neuroscience (Athens, 17–19 October 2003)

Nicotine acts in the CNS mainly through cholinergic modulation. Cholinergic systems affect cognitive processes such as attention and participate in memory consolidation. Cholinesterase inhibitors are used to reduce memory decline in Alzheimer’s disease. Thus it is worth investigating whether nicotine directly affects cognitive processes and whether this is related to the habit of smoking. To distinguish nicotine effects from other consequences of smoking, a study was conducted in which nicotine was administered transdermally. 24 men and women participated, half of them smokers. Each carried out the cognitive tasks with a normal nicotine patch and, on a different day (order counterbalanced), with a covered patch (placebo condition). Nicotine effects were assessed for memory (recall of a spoken 16-word list with 4 semantic groups), verbal information processing (logical reasoning test), and attention (continuous performance test requiring speedy response to visual target stimuli and distractors). Results showed a small effect of nicotine for the attention task only. Nicotine increased the false alarm rate while speeding up mean response time (marginally significantly). No statistically significant effect was observed for logical reasoning (accuracy and speed) or memory recall (number of recalled items and semantic grouping). There was no interaction between nicotine and being a smoker. In conclusion, and in agreement the literature, cognitive effects of transdermally administered nicotine to persons without Alzheimer’s disease are not substantial. This does not mean that nicotinic receptors do not participate in learning and memory or that therapeutic use of nicotine is inappropriate for dementia, but perhaps that the conditions and interactive framework of nicotinic receptor action cannot be sufficiently con-trolled with oversimplified research procedures.

We are grateful to Pharmacia Hellas S.A., and especially to Mr. G. Softas, for providing the nicotine patches and related documentation.