Acute and Chronic Nicotine Modulation of Reinforcement Learning
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2016-08-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The purpose of this study is to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to
investigate the acute and chronic effects of nicotine on motivational behavior and prediction
error-related neural activation. Nonsmokers (n = 24) and smokers (n = 24) will undergo fMRI
scans on two separate occasions while performing a decision-making task that will elicit
prediction error signals in the mesocorticolimbic pathway of the brain. Nonsmokers will be
scanned once following an acute dose of nicotine and once following placebo administration.
Smokers will be scanned once following smoking as usual and once following 24-hours of
smoking abstinence, in order to measure the effects of nicotine withdrawal. The study team
hypothesizes that acute nicotine will increase the prediction error signal in nonsmokers
compared to placebo, and that nicotine withdrawal will decrease the prediction error signal
in smokers compared to the normal satiated condition. Furthermore, nonsmokers (during the
placebo condition) will have greater prediction error activation than smokers (during the
satiated condition). The results of this study will inform whether the initiation and
maintenance of smoking behavior could be facilitated by the effects of nicotine on
reinforcement learning.