title: Nicotine effects on anterior cingulate cortex in schizophrenia and healthy smokers as revealed by EEG-informed fMRI.
abstract: Nicotine can have beneficial effects on attention performance and corresponding brain function in both schizophrenia patients and healthy controls, but it remains controversial whether nicotine affects brain function differentially in patients vs. controls. The effects of nicotine on brain activity elicited by attention-requiring oddball-type tasks have not been studied in schizophrenia patients. In this study we sought to investigate the impact of nicotine on the p300 evoked potential component and corresponding fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) activation measures in schizophrenia patients and controls. Applying a double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over design, the effects of 1mg nasal nicotine on brain activity elicited by a visual oddball-type task in N=14 schizophrenia and N=15 control smokers were studied with simultaneous EEG-fMRI. EEG single trial amplitudes were used to inform the fMRI analysis. We found a nicotine-associated increase in P300-informed fMRI activation in schizophrenia patients and controls, mainly in the anterior cingulate and adjacent medial frontal cortex. No group differences in the response to nicotine were found. Remarkably, averaged EEG and fMRI activation measures considered in isolation were largely unaffected by nicotine. Taken together, the effects of nicotine on P300 amplitude-associated brain activation do not seem to be fundamentally different in schizophrenic smokers and healthy controls.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience & Medicine, Research Center Jülich, Germany. Arian.Mobascher@unimedizin-mainz.de
authors.forename: Arian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mobascher
authors.forename: Tracy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Warbrick
authors.forename: Juergen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brinkmeyer
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Musso
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Stoecker
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jon Shah
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Winterer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000098:blood supply / Q000187:drug effects / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology*; D012907:Smoking / Q000473:pathology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D018722:Nicotinic Agonists; D009538:Nicotine; D010100:Oxygen