| The attention-augmenting effects of nicotine and dopaminergic involvement in these effects have been demonstrated in many studies. In an attempt to further characterize the mechanisms underlying dopaminergic function in response to nicotine, this study examined the role of the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) TaqIA polymorphism in nicotine's attentional effects as the presence of the A1 allele of this polymorphism has been associated with dependence and reduced attentional tone. More specifically, the P300, an event-related potential (ERP) index of attention was assessed in 24 healthy non-smokers performing a rapid visual information processing (RVIP) task following acute nicotine or placebo gum administration. Although nicotine increased subjective alertness and heart rate, it did not enhance RVIP performance and there were no differences between genotype groups. Although the results do not accord with previous research in smokers, it is not inconsistent with those studies involving non-smokers and suggest smoker-status dependent differential effects of genotype on nicotine responsivity. |
