Discriminative stimuli that control instrumental tobacco-seeking by human smokers also command selective attention.
BACKGROUND
Incentive salience theory states that acquired bias in selective attention for stimuli associated with tobacco-smoke reinforcement controls the selective performance of tobacco-seeking and tobacco-taking behaviour.


OBJECTIVE
To support this theory, we assessed whether a stimulus that had acquired control of a tobacco-seeking response in a discrimination procedure would command the focus of visual attention in a subsequent test phase.


METHODS
Smokers received discrimination training in which an instrumental key-press response was followed by tobacco-smoke reinforcement when one visual discriminative stimulus (S+) was present, but not when another stimulus (S-) was present. The skin conductance response to the S+ and S- assessed whether Pavlovian conditioning to the S+ had taken place. In a subsequent test phase, the S+ and S- were presented in the dot-probe task and the allocation of the focus of visual attention to these stimuli was measured.


RESULTS
Participants learned to perform the instrumental tobacco-seeking response selectively in the presence of the S+ relative to the S-, and showed a greater skin conductance response to the S+ than the S-. In the subsequent test phase, participants allocated the focus of visual attention to the S+ in preference to the S-. Correlation analysis revealed that the visual attentional bias for the S+ was positively associated with the number of times the S+ had been paired with tobacco-smoke in training, the skin conductance response to the S+ and with subjective craving to smoke. Furthermore, increased exposure to tobacco-smoke in the natural environment was associated with reduced discrimination learning.


CONCLUSIONS
These data demonstrate that discriminative stimuli that signal that tobacco-smoke reinforcement is available acquire the capacity to command selective attentional and elicit instrumental tobacco-seeking behaviour.
Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, Sussex BN1 9QG, UK.
Lee
L
Hogarth
Anthony
A
Dickinson
Theodora
T
Duka
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001944:Breath Tests; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*