title: Nicotine modulates reorienting of visuospatial attention and neural activity in human parietal cortex.
abstract: Prior studies in animals and humans indicate that reorienting of visuospatial attention is modulated by the cholinergic agonist nicotine. We have previously identified neural correlates of alerting and reorienting attention in humans and found that the parietal cortex is specifically involved in reorienting. This study investigates whether the alerting and reorienting systems, especially in the parietal cortex, are modulated by nicotine. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and studied 15 nonsmoking volunteers under placebo and nicotine (NICORETTE) polacrilex gum 1 and 2 mg). Subjects performed a cued target detection task with four different types of randomly intermixed trials (no, neutral, valid, and invalid cue trials). Alerting was captured by comparing BOLD activity and reaction times (RTs) in neutrally cued trials with no cue trials. Reorienting was isolated by comparing invalidly with validly cued trials. On the behavioral level, nicotine affected reorienting of attention by speeding RTs in invalidly cued trials; alerting was not affected by nicotine. Neurally, however, nicotine modulated both attentional systems. Pharmacologic effects on alerting-related brain activity were mainly evident as modulation of BOLD responses in the right angular gyrus and right middle frontal gyrus due to a reduction of neural activity in no cue trials. In the reorienting system, effects of nicotine were mainly evident in the left intraparietal sulcus and precuneus and due to a reduction of neural activity in invalidly cued trials. We conclude that nicotine enhances reorienting of attention in visuospatial tasks and that one behavioral correlate of speeded RTs is reduced parietal activity.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medicine, Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany. c.thiel@fz-juelich.de
authors.forename: Christiane M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Thiel
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zilles
authors.forename: Gereon R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Fink
mesh_terms: D000109:Acetylcholine / Q000378:metabolism; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D009949:Orientation / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013028:Space Perception / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D018722:Nicotinic Agonists; D009538:Nicotine; D000109:Acetylcholine