title: Neural correlates of cigarette health warning avoidance among smokers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Eye-tracking technology has indicated that daily smokers actively avoid pictorial cigarette package health warnings. Avoidance may be due to a pre-cognitive perceptual bias or a higher order cognitive bias, such as reduced emotional processing. Using electroencephalography (EEG), this study aimed to identify the temporal point at which smokers' responses to health warnings begin to differ.
  
  
  METHODS
  Non-smokers (n=20) and daily smokers (n=20) viewed pictorial cigarette package health warnings and neutral control stimuli. These elicited Event Related Potentials reflecting early perceptual processing (visual P1), pre-attentive change detection (visual Mismatch Negativity), selective attentional orientation (P3) and a measure of emotional processing, the Late Positive Potential (LPP).
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no evidence for a difference in P1 responses between smokers and non-smokers. There was no difference in vMMN and P3 amplitude but some evidence for a delay in vMMN latency amongst smokers. There was strong evidence for delayed and reduced LPP to health warning stimuli amongst smokers compared to non-smokers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We find no evidence for an early perceptual bias in smokers' visual perception of health warnings but strong evidence that smokers are less sensitive to the emotional content of cigarette health warnings. Future health warning development should focus on increasing the emotional salience of pictorial health warning content amongst smokers.
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK. Electronic address: George.Stothart@bristol.ac.uk.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stothart
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK; MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) at the University of Bristol, UK; UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, UK.
authors.forename: Olivia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Maynard
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: Rosie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lavis
authors.affiliation: School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, UK; MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) at the University of Bristol, UK; UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, UK.
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Munafò
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011356:Product Labeling; D012907:Smoking / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Health warnings; LPP; Smoking; Tobacco; vMMN