title: Effects of inhaled nicotine on instrumental learning of blood pressure responses.
abstract: The present study investigated the effects of biofeedback of arterial blood pressure on cortical, peripheral, and psychological measures and the dependence of these effects on nicotine. Four groups of subjects, nonsmokers, and habitual smokers who smoked cigarettes during the experimental sessions containing 0.3, 0.8, or 1.5 mg nicotine, respectively, participated in a feedback paradigm in which continuous feedback of mean blood pressure was provided for intervals of 8 s each. While tonic blood pressure did not differ between the groups, the ability to modulate blood pressure (under feedback conditions) was restricted in smokers as compared to nonsmoking subjects; increasing nicotine dosage was accompanied by poorer performance. Independently of habitual smoking and nicotine doses, heart rate increased during feedback and under conditions of blood pressure increase. In smokers, activity in the alpha band was reduced in a dose-dependent manner. Slow cortical potentials (SCPs) during the feedback interval varied with self-induced blood pressure changes in nonsmokers (blood pressure increase was accompanied by reduced surface-negative potential shifts and vice versa), while SCP variations during feedback conditions were small in smokers, more so under the influence of 0.3 and 0.8-mg nicotine, less so under 1.5 mg. Verbal reports suggest that awareness of performance strategies may not be a necessary variable for performance on the blood pressure regulation task.
authors.affiliation: Università degli Studii, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Birbaumer
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Elbert
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rockstroh
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Krämer
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lutzenberger
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Grossmann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004585:Electrooculography; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012907:Smoking / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D009538:Nicotine