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An electrophysiological dissociation of craving and stimulus-dependent attentional capture in smokers.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Donohue, SE; Woldorff, MG; Hopf, J-M; Harris, JA; Heinze, H-J; Schoenfeld, MA
Published in: Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci
December 2016

It has been suggested that over the course of an addiction, addiction-related stimuli become highly salient in the environment, thereby capturing an addict's attention. To assess these effects neurally in smokers, and how they interact with craving, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) in two sessions: one in which participants had just smoked (non-craving), and one in which they had abstained from smoking for 3 h (craving). In both sessions, participants performed a visual-search task in which two colored squares were presented to the left and right of fixation, with one color being the target to which they should shift attention and discriminate the locations of two missing corners. Task-irrelevant images, both smoking-related and non-smoking-related, were embedded in both squares, enabling the shift of spatial attention to the target to be examined as a function of the addiction-related image being present or absent in the target, the distractor, or both. Behaviorally, participants were slower to respond to targets containing a smoking-related image. Furthermore, when the target contained a smoking-related image, the neural responses indicated that attention had been shifted less strongly to the target; when the distractor contained a smoking-related image, the shift of attention to the contralateral target was stronger. These effects occurred independently of craving and suggest that participants were actively avoiding the smoking-related images. Together, these results provide an electrophysiological dissociation between addiction-related visual-stimulus processing and the neural activity associated with craving.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

DOI

EISSN

1531-135X

Publication Date

December 2016

Volume

16

Issue

6

Start / End Page

1114 / 1126

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Visual Perception
  • Tobacco Use Disorder
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Space Perception
  • Smoking
  • Reaction Time
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Male
  • Humans
 

Citation

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Donohue, S. E., Woldorff, M. G., Hopf, J.-M., Harris, J. A., Heinze, H.-J., & Schoenfeld, M. A. (2016). An electrophysiological dissociation of craving and stimulus-dependent attentional capture in smokers. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci, 16(6), 1114–1126. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-016-0457-9
Donohue, Sarah E., Marty G. Woldorff, Jens-Max Hopf, Joseph A. Harris, Hans-Jochen Heinze, and Mircea A. Schoenfeld. “An electrophysiological dissociation of craving and stimulus-dependent attentional capture in smokers.Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 16, no. 6 (December 2016): 1114–26. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-016-0457-9.
Donohue SE, Woldorff MG, Hopf J-M, Harris JA, Heinze H-J, Schoenfeld MA. An electrophysiological dissociation of craving and stimulus-dependent attentional capture in smokers. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2016 Dec;16(6):1114–26.
Donohue, Sarah E., et al. “An electrophysiological dissociation of craving and stimulus-dependent attentional capture in smokers.Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci, vol. 16, no. 6, Dec. 2016, pp. 1114–26. Pubmed, doi:10.3758/s13415-016-0457-9.
Donohue SE, Woldorff MG, Hopf J-M, Harris JA, Heinze H-J, Schoenfeld MA. An electrophysiological dissociation of craving and stimulus-dependent attentional capture in smokers. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2016 Dec;16(6):1114–1126.
Journal cover image

Published In

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

DOI

EISSN

1531-135X

Publication Date

December 2016

Volume

16

Issue

6

Start / End Page

1114 / 1126

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Visual Perception
  • Tobacco Use Disorder
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Space Perception
  • Smoking
  • Reaction Time
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Male
  • Humans