title: Nicotine reduces distraction under low perceptual load.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Several studies provide evidence that nicotine alleviates the detrimental effects of distracting sensory stimuli. It is been suggested that nicotine may either act as a stimulus filter that prevents irrelevant stimuli entering awareness or by enhancing the attentional focus to relevant stimuli via a boost in processing capacity.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To differentiate between these two accounts, we administered nicotine to healthy non-smokers and investigated distractor interference in a visual search task with low and high perceptual load to tax processing capacity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty healthy non-smokers received either 7 mg transdermal nicotine or a matched placebo in a double blind within subject design 1 h prior to performing the visual search task with different fixation distractors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nicotine reduced interference of incongruent distractors, but only under low-load conditions, where distractor effects were large. No effects of nicotine were observed under high-load conditions. Highly distractible subjects showed the largest effects of nicotine.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that nicotine acts primarily as a stimulus filter that prevents irrelevant stimuli from entering awareness in situations of high distractor interference.
authors.affiliation: Biological Psychology, Department of Psychology, European Medical School, Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Ammerländer Heer Str. 114-118, 26111, Oldenburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Behler
authors.forename: Thomas P K
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Breckel
authors.forename: Christiane M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Thiel
mesh_terms: D000279:Administration, Cutaneous; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009538:Nicotine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D009538:Nicotine