"Nick Bostrom" <bostrom@ndirect.co.uk> writes:
> I would recommend that your mother tries nicotine chewing gum. In
> contrast to the "suicide pins", chewing gum is extremely safe while
> having a similar neurological effect.
Yes, and the addiction potential seems lower due to the slower onset. Overall, it is sad that our most common and successful nootropic is usually taken in a form that has so many big health drawbacks as smoking.
> There is some evidence that nicotine improves performance on complex
> cognitive tasks (also in non-smokers).
I have collected a number of papers (see below) about it, and there are good evidence that nicotine has effects on attention and likely indirectly on memory. Non-smokers may need to adapt a bit before they get the benefits, nicotine unfortunately causes nausea and other physiological reactions at first.
As for the creativity effects, it might be more due to stopping than the nicotine itself. The mother of a friend reported similar problems as Proclus' mother when she stopped smoking, a big creative block. My guess is that the disruption of attention and other cholinergic systems caused by stopping interfered with the creative process on a fairly deep level.
@article{Levin98,
author = {E. D. Levin and B. B. Simon},
title = {Nicotinic acetylcholine involvement in cognitive function in animals},
journal = {Psychopharmacology (Berl)},
volume = {138},
number = {3-4},
pages = {217--30},
month = aug,
year = {1998},
keywords = {Acetylcholine/*physiology/therapeutic use Animal Attention/drug effects Cognition/drug effects/*physiology Human Memory/drug effects Nicotinic Agonists/pharmacology/therapeutic use Receptors, Neurotransmitter/drug effects Receptors, Nicotinic/drug effects/*metabolism},
abstract = {Nicotinic cholinergic systems are involved with several
important aspects of cognitive function including attention, learning
and memory. Nicotinic cholinergic receptors are located in many
regions of the brain, including areas important for cognitive function
such as the hippocampus and frontal cortex. Nicotinic agonists have
been found in rodent and non-human primate studies to improve
performance on a variety of memory tasks. In a complementary fashion,
nicotinic antagonists such as mecamylamine impair working memory
function. In humans, similar effects have been seen. Nicotinic agonist
treatment can improve attention, learning and memory and nicotinic
antagonist treatment can cause deficits. To define the neural
substrates of nicotinic involvement in cognitive function, three areas
of investigation are underway. 1) Critical neuroanatomic loci for
nicotinic effects are beginning to be determined. The hippocampus,
frontal cortex and midbrain dopaminergic nuclei have been found to be
important sites of action for nicotinic involvement in memory
function. 2) Nicotinic receptor subtype involvement in cognitive
function is being studied. There has been considerable recent work
identifying nicotinic receptor subunit conformation including alpha
and beta subunits. Nicotinic receptor subtypes appear to be associated
with different functional systems; however, much remains to be done to
determine the precise role each subtype plays in terms of cognitive
function. 3) Nicotinic interactions with other transmitter systems are
being assessed. Nicotine receptors interact in important ways with
other systems to affect cognitive functioning, including muscarinic
ACh, dopamine, norepinepherine, serotonin, glutamate, and other
systems. Nicotinic function in clinical populations and potential for
therapeutics has been investigated for Alzheimer's disease,
Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia and attention deficit/hyperactivity
disorder. Areas which need to receive greater attention are the exact
anatomical location and the specific receptor subtypes critically
involved in nicotine's effects. In addition, more work needs to be
done to develop and determine the efficacy and safety of novel
nicotinic ligands for use in the long-term treatment of human
cognitive disorders.} }
@article{Levin98,
author = {E. D. Levin and C. K. Conners and D. Silva and S. C. Hinton and W. H. Meck and J. March and J. E. Rose},
title = {Transdermal nicotine effects on attention [In Process Citation]},
journal = {Psychopharmacology (Berl)},
volume = {140},
number = {2},
pages = {135--41},
month = nov,
year = {1998},
abstract = {Nicotine has been shown to improve attentiveness in
smokers and attenuate attentional deficits in Alzheimer's disease
patients, schizophrenics and adults with
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The current study was
conducted to determine whether nicotine administered via transdermal
patches would improve attentiveness in non- smoking adults without
attentional deficits. The subjects underwent the nicotine and placebo
exposure in a counterbalanced double-blind manner. Measures of
treatment effect included the Profile of Mood States (POMS), Conners'
computerized Continuous Performance Test (CPT) of attentiveness and a
computerized interval-timing task. The subjects were administered a 7
mg/day nicotine transdermal patch for 4.5 h during a morning
session. Nicotine significantly increased self- perceived vigor as
measured by the POMS test. On the CPT, nicotine significantly
decreased the number of errors of omission without causing increases
in either errors of commission or correct hit reaction time. Nicotine
also significantly decreased the variance of hit reaction time and the
composite measure of attentiveness. This study shows that, in addition
to reducing attentional impairment, nicotine administered via
transdermal patches can improve attentiveness in normal adult
non-smokers.} }
@Article{Levin92a,
author = {Levin, Edward D. AND Briggs, Sandra J. AND Christopher, Nadine C. AND Rose, Jed E.},
title = {Persistence of Chronic Nicotine-Induced Cognitive Facilitation},
journal = {Behavioral and Neural Biology},
year = {1992},
volume = 58,
pages = {152--158},
@Article{Rusted92,
author = {Rusted, Jennifer M. AND Warburton, David M.},
title = {Facilitation of memory by post-trial administration of nicotine: evidence for an attentional explanation},
journal = {Psychopharmacology},
year = {1992},
volume = 108,
pages = {452--455},
@Article{Warburton92,
author = {Warburton, D.M. AND Rusted, J.M. AND Fowler, J.},
title = {A comparision of the attentional and consolidation hypotheses for the facilitation of memory by nicotine},
journal = {Psychopharmacology},
year = {1992},
volume = 108,
pages = {443--447},
@Article{Levin92b,
author = {Levin, Edward D.},
title = {Nicotinic Systems and Cognitive Function},
journal = {Psychopharmacology},
year = {1992},
volume = 108,
pages = {417-431},
@Misc{Houlihan95,
author = {Houlihan, Michael E. AND Pritchard, Walter S. AND Robinson, John H.},
title = {Effects on Smoking on Stimulus Evaluation and Response Selection},
howpublished = {Presented at the meeting of the Psychophysiological Research in Toronto},
year = 1995,
month = {October},
@Article{Mumenthaler98,
author = {Martin S. Mumenthaler AND Joy L. Taylor AND Ruth O'Hara AND Jerome A. Yesavage},
title = {Influence of nicotine on simulator flight performance in non-smokers},
journal = {Psychopharmacology},
year = 1998,
volume = 140,
pages = {38--41}
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