Electroencephalographic characterization of cigarette smoking behavior.

The rewarding properties of used and abused substances are related to their ability to modulate central processes subserving mood, cognition, and behavior. Research into the motivationally relevant factors mediating substance use and abuse among human beings, including tobacco smoking, can strategically benefit from the utilization of noninvasive brain function measures that are able to probe the neurobiology of brain states in concert with substance ingestion. This paper reviews investigations from my laboratory with the use of neuroelectric tools, by means of quantitative electroencephalography, for the purpose of characterizing the central response to cigarette smoking. Prominent in these strategies is the acute smoking paradigm, whereby measures are focused on the profiling of central responsivity to smoke inhalation from a single cigarette and administration of test doses of nicotine. Complementing this approach are studies (1) in which receptor antagonists are administered in an attempt to explore putative transmitter systems regulating the acute smoking-induced electroencephalographic response and (2) in which electroencephalographic profiles of acute smoking are compared with electroencephalographic profiles resulting from administration of single doses of psychotropic substances. Completing these studies are attempts to monitor the electrocortical correlates of repeated smoking exposure and smoking deprivation, which, together with investigations examining smoker vs. nonsmoker differences and the effects of chronic life-long smoking, provide objective insights into the neuroelectrophysiology underlying the smoking habit.