NCT01830842

Acute and Chronic Nicotine Modulation of Reinforcement Learning

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 54 (actual)
• Sponsor: Duke University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 55 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the acute and chronic effects of nicotine on motivational behavior and prediction error-related neural activation. Nonsmokers (n = 24) and smokers (n = 24) will undergo fMRI scans on two separate occasions while performing a decision-making task that will elicit prediction error signals in the mesocorticolimbic pathway of the brain. Nonsmokers will be scanned once following an acute dose of nicotine and once following placebo administration. Smokers will be scanned once following smoking as usual and once following 24-hours of smoking abstinence, in order to measure the effects of nicotine withdrawal. The study team hypothesizes that acute nicotine will increase the prediction error signal in nonsmokers compared to placebo, and that nicotine withdrawal will decrease the prediction error signal in smokers compared to the normal satiated condition. Furthermore, nonsmokers (during the placebo condition) will have greater prediction error activation than smokers (during the satiated condition). The results of this study will inform whether the initiation and maintenance of smoking behavior could be facilitated by the effects of nicotine on reinforcement learning.

Conditions

• Nicotine Addiction

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Nicotine polacrilex	nonsmokers will be measured following nicotine administration
DRUG	Placebo	nonsmokers will be measured following placebo administration
OTHER	satiety	smokers will be measured in a smoking satiated condition
OTHER	abstinence	smokers will be measured following 24-hours of smoking abstinence

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-02-01
• Primary completion: 2016-08-31
• Completion: 2016-08-31
• First posted: 2013-04-12
• Last updated: 2017-12-19
• Results posted: 2017-12-19

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States