Observations placeholder
Nicotine and Alzheimers
Identifier
005281
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Br J Psychiatry. 1989 Jun;154:797-800. The effects of nicotine on attention, information processing, and short-term memory in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type; Sahakian B, Jones G, Levy R, Gray J, Warburton D. Section of Old Age Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London.
Nicotine in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) produced 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.
PMID: 259788
The source of the experience
PubMedConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Symbols
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Overloads
Smoking addiction treatmentsSuppressions
Acetylcholine and its ligandsDementia and Alzheimers
Nicotine