Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T16:17:13.954Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Effects of Nicotine on Attention, Information Processing, and Short-Term Memory in Patients with Dementia of the Alzheimer Type

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Barbara Sahakian ,
Gemma Jones ,
Raymond Levy ,
Jeffrey Gray  and
David Warburton
Barbara Sahakian*
Affiliation:
Section of Old Age Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London
Gemma Jones
Affiliation:
Section of Old Age Psychiatry and Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London
Raymond Levy
Affiliation:
Section of Old Age Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London
Jeffrey Gray
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London
David Warburton
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Reading, Reading
*
∗Section of Old Age Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Nicotine in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) producted a significant and marked improvement in discriminative sensitivity and reaction times on a computerised test of attention and information processing. Nicotine also improved the ability of DAT patients to detect a flickering light in a critical flicker fusion test. These results suggest that nicotine may be acting on cortical mechanisms involved in visual perception and attention, and support the hypothesis that acetylcholine transmission modulates vigilance and discrimination. Nicotine may therefore be of some value in treating deficits in attention and information processing in DAT patients.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 154 , Issue 6 , June 1989 , pp. 797 - 800
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartus, R. T., Dean, R. L. III, Beer, B., et al (1982) The cholinergic hypothesis of geriatric memory dysfunction. Science, 217, 408–417.Google Scholar
Candy, J. M., Fairburn, A. F., Johnson, M., et al (1986) Hippocampal cholinergic (muscarinic and putative nicotinic) receptors in human cognitive disorders. Proceedings of the British Pharmacological Society Abstracts, 88, Suppl., 359P.Google Scholar
Clarke, P. B. S., Hamill, G. S., Nadi, N. S. et al (1986) II-nicotine and 125I-alpha-bungarotoxin labelled nicotine receptors in the interpeduncular nucleus of rats. II: Effects of habenular deafferentation. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 251, 407–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, P. & Feisullin, S. (1981) Postmortem stability of alpha-bungarotoxin binding sites in mouse and human brain. Brain Research, 216, 449–454.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drachman, D. A. & Sahakian, B. J. (1979) Effects of cholinergic agents on human learning and memory. In Nutrition and the Brain, vol. 5 (eds Barbeau, A., Growdon, J. H. & Wurtman, R. J.), pp. 351–366. New York: Raven.Google Scholar
Dunnett, S. B. (1985) Comparative effects of cholinergic drugs and lesions of nucleus basalis or fimbria-fornix on delayed matching in rats. Psychopharmacology, 87, 357–363.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flynn, D. D. & Mash, D. C. (1985) Nicotine receptors in human frontal and inferotemporal cortex: comparison between Alzheimer's disease and normal. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, 11, 1119–1120.Google Scholar
Francis, P. T., Palmer, A. M., Sims, N. R., et al (1985) Neurochemical studies of early-onset Alzheimer's disease: possible influence on treatment. New England Journal of Medicine, 313, 7–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hughes, C. P., Berg, L., Danziger, W. L., et al (1982) A new clinical scale for the staging of dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 566–572.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McKhann, G., Drachman, D., Folstein, M., et al (1985) Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Report of NINCDS-ADRDA Work Group under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services Task Force on Alzheimer's disease. Neurology, 34, 939–944.Google Scholar
McNicol, D. (1972) A Primer of Signal Detection Theory. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.Google Scholar
Mitchell, S. N., Brazell, M. B. & Joseph, M. H. et al (1987) Regional differences in the effect of nicotine on catecholamine turnover in the rat CNS. British Journal of Pharmacology, 91, 430P.Google Scholar
Nelson, H. E. (1982) National Adult Reading Test (NART) Test Manual. Windsor: NFER-Nelson.Google Scholar
Perry, E. K., Tomlinson, B. E., Blessed, G., et al (1978) Correlation of cholinergic abnormalities with senile plaques and mental test scores in senile dementia. British Medical Journal, ii 1457–1459.Google Scholar
Pert, A. & Chiueh, C. C. (1986) Effects of intracerebral nicotinic agonists on locomotor activity: involvement of mesolimbic dopamine. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts, 12, 250–254.Google Scholar
Philpot, M. P. & Levy, R. (1987) A memory clinic for the early diagnosis of dementia. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2, 195–200.Google Scholar
Rinne, J., Rinne, J. K., Laakso, K., et al (1984) Reduction in muscarinic receptor binding in limbic areas of Alzheimer brain. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 47, 651–653.Google Scholar
Rowell, P. & Winkler, D. L. (1984) Nicotinic stimulation of 3H-acetylcholine release from mouse cerebral cortical synaptosomes. Journal of Neurochemistry, 43, 1593–1598.Google Scholar
Sahakian, B. J. (1988) Cholinergic drugs and human cognitive performance. In Handbook of Psychopharmacology, vol. 20: Psychopharmacology of the Ageing Nervous System (eds Iversen, L., Iversen, S. D. & Snyder, S. H.), pp. 393–424. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Sahgal, A. (1987a) Contrasting effects of vasopressin, desglycinamide–vasopressin and amphetamine on a delayed matching to position task in rats. Psychopharmacology, 93, 243–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sahgal, A. (1987b) Some limitations of indices derived from signal detection theory: evaluation of an alternative index for measuring bias in memory tasks. Psychopharmacology, 91, 517–520.Google Scholar
Smith, J. M. & Misiak, H. (1976) Critical flicker frequency (CFF) and psychotropic drugs in normal human subjects–a review. Psychopharmacology, 47, 175–182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Warburton, D. M. (1987) Drugs and the processing of information. In Cognitive Neurochemistry (eds Stahl, S. M., Iversen, S. D. & Goodman, E. C.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wesnes, K. & Warburton, D. M. (1984) Effects of scopolamine and nicotine on human rapid information processing performance. Psychopharmacology, 82, 147–150.Google Scholar
West, R. J. & Jarvis, M. J. (1986) Effects of nicotine on finger tapping rate in non smokers. Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behaviour, 25, 727–731.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
White, P., Hiley, C. R., Goodhart, M. J., et al (1977) Neo-cortical cholinergic neurons in elderly people. Lancet, i 668–670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.