, 2009). In contrast to the lack of effect leave a message on executive attention, nicotine-enhanced alerting attention by decreasing errors of commission on the CPT in nonsmokers and improving the correct identification of T1 target words on the RSVP task in smokers. There was no nicotine effect on alerting as measured by the ANT, which might be a function of the tasks measuring alerting in different ways��that is, the ANT is a cued reaction time task. The differential responses to nicotine between smokers and nonsmokers on these tasks is not unusual in the literature (Heishman et al., 2010) and might reflect a combination of chronic nicotine exposure and preexisting trait differences (Pomerleau et al., 2009). We hypothesized that nonsmokers would show greater subjective and cardiovascular effects of nicotine because of nicotine tolerance in smokers (Perkins et al.

, 2001). Nonsmokers were indeed more sensitive to negative effects such as jittery and dizzy; but they, as did smokers, rated all doses of nicotine as having a good drug effect. Both groups were similarly sensitive to the cardiovascular effects of nicotine. In summary, the acute administration of intranasal nicotine improved alerting attention in nonsmokers as measured by the CPT, and in smokers as measured by the RSVP. Nicotine had no effect on executive attention as measured by the RSVP and the ANT. Empirical data on the elements of attention enhanced by nicotine might guide the development of novel medications for the treatment of tobacco dependence. Additionally, in a recent meta-analysis (Heishman et al.

, 2010), significant positive effect sizes of nicotine on cognitive performance were observed in both nonsmokers and smokers, with no difference between the two groups. The authors concluded that the results in nonsmokers is indirect evidence that cognitive enhancement might be one reason people decide to start smoking. However, whether or not the cognitive enhancing effects of nicotine reinforce cigarette smoking remains to be answered. Supplementary Material Supplementary Table 1 can be found online at http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/05/09/ntr.nts108/suppl/DC1 Funding This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Intramural Research Program , National Institute on Drug Abuse. Declaration of Interests None declared. Supplementary Material Supplementary Data: Click here to view.

Acknowledgments We thank Drs. Jennifer Schroeder and David Epstein for statistical consultations and the National Institute on Drug Abuse AV-951 clinical support staff for their assistance in conducting the study.
The tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people a year from lung cancer, heart disease, and other illnesses. By 2030, the death toll will exceed eight million a year, and 80% of those deaths will occur in the developing world (World Health Organization [WHO], 2011).