title: Differential cigarette-related startle cue reactivity among light, moderate, and heavy smokers.
abstract: In this study, we examined the relationship between the level of daily cigarette consumption and the startle response to affective and cigarette-related cues among treatment-seeking smokers. Before receiving any behavioral or pharmacological treatment, 136 smokers attended a baseline laboratory session, during which we recorded their reflexive eyeblink responses to acoustic startle probes while they were viewing pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, and cigarette-related pictures. We found that 1) cigarette-related and pleasant pictures similarly reduced the startle magnitude compared to neutral pictures; 2) the magnitude of startle modulation rendered by pleasant or unpleasant pictures did not differ among light, moderate, and heavy smokers; and 3) startle attenuation by cigarette-related pictures was greater in heavy smokers than in light smokers. These results suggest that similar to pleasant stimuli, cigarette-related cues are motivationally salient for smokers, and that this salience increases with nicotine dependence.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, USA.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Jason D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Versace
authors.forename: Cho Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.forename: Jennifer A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Minnix
authors.forename: Maher
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karam-Hage
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Dani
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Kosten
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Wetter
authors.forename: Victoria L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Cinciripini
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology*; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult