title: Nicotine craving: ERPs correlates after VR exposure to smoking cues.
abstract: Even though it is diminishing in Europe, smoking is still a serious health problem. The craving of Nicotine is one of the hardest behaviours to tackle when a smoking cessation programme is implemented. Following on previous work [1], which aimed at evaluating the possibility of inducing smoking craving in smokers using a VR platform, the present study was devised to assess the role of craving in cognitive processing through event related potentials (ERP). From an initial sample of 89 university students (smokers and non-smokers), which was randomly exposed to VR smoking cues and VR non-smoking cue scenarios, a subsample of 13 smokers and non-smokers was drawn. This subsample (M = 23.08; SD = 4.39), which had previously been immersed in the VR smoking cues environment, was presented to a rapid (1 sec) serial of smoking and neutral images. Data on brain activity was recorded through an EEG during this task to further estimate ERPs. When compared to non-smokers, smokers showed higher frontal activation when watching smoking related images.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology, University Lusófona of Humanities and Technologies, Portugal.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gamito
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baptista
authors.forename: Diogo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Morais
authors.forename: Paulo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.forename: Tomaz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saraiva
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rosa
authors.forename: Nuno
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Fábio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Catarina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sottomayor
authors.forename: Filipa
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Barata
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014584:User-Computer Interface