Nicotine as a Cognitive Enhancer - Research Proposal Example

Nicotine as a Cognitive Enhancer Affiliation Nicotine as a Cognitive Enhancer Nicotine is said to kill people over time when they consume a large amount of nicotine in cigarettes. Anxiety, mood disorders and addiction have been linked to the use of nicotine over time (Goodwin, Grover & Zvolensky, 2012). Many studies have been done on rats and other animals to understand how nicotine works on the human body (Feltenstein, Ghee, and See 2012). In some cases, nicotine has been linked to suicide attempts (Yaworski, Robinson, Sareen & Bolton, 2011). These studies point out the negative aspects of nicotine and its addictive qualities but there are other studies that suggest that nicotine can be a cognitive enhancer. The study that is proposed will assist in understanding whether nicotine is a cognitive enhancer. Literature Review The study that this researcher proposes is one that will examine nicotine as a cognitive enhancer. The process that will be studied is how the nicotine patch effects the delivery of nicotine into the body and whether this method is a better way of delivery than smoking. Another question is whether the nicotine patch can rule out health concerns that may happen when nicotine is ingested through cigarettes. The study is projected to create an opportunity to discuss the benefits of nicotine instead of continuing to show that it is always negative. Nicotine and Cognition Many researchers have studied whether nicotine can enhance the cognitive abilities of those people using it and it has been applied to situations where cognition was impaired. As an example, Winga, Bachera, Saccob and Georgea (2011) used nicotine in an experiment with schizophrenic patients. This study used a nicotine patch in order to use the skin as a way for the participants to receive nicotine. The study tested both smokers and non-smokers (non-smokers had history of smoking but were not smoking at time of test) and provided smoking breaks within the process of the study. The researchers found that smoking “ modifies pre-pulse inhibition (PPI) deficits” (p. 323) in schizophrenic patients. In other words, smoking actually helped the cognitive functioning of schizophrenic patients. They also found that patients who smoked had less impairment in neuropsychological task performance and those who did not smoke and more impairment. This study clearly showed that nicotine is a cognitive enhancer in patients who had difficulties staying on task with their cognition. This study is relevant to this researcher’s study because it provides a transdermal patch that is an alternative to smoking the nicotine. The study that is proposed will use the nicotine patch, another alternative way of ingesting nicotine. Ernst, Heishman, Spurgeon and London (2001) state that “tobacco and nicotine have a complex effect on human performance…” (p. 313) which they attribute to whether the individual is currently smoking or whether they have deprived themselves from smoking. The study asked participants to chew two pieces of Nicorette® gum for 15 minutes and to do one chew every three seconds. They where then asked to do a series of computerized cognitive tasks. The researchers found that people who smoked for a long time, had more trouble with cognitive skills than those who did not. In fact, they found that “chronic exposure to nicotine has a deleterious effect on working memory” (p. 317). This insight suggests that too much nicotine actually impairs cognitive functioning instead of enhancing it. This can mean that an experiment using nicotine would have to be monitored so that people did not inhale too much. A limitation of this study was that it was task specific and it could not tell whether someone who was doing other cognitive tasks would have a better outcome than on this one. There are a variety of studies that suggest that the pharmacological effects of nicotine enhance cognitive ability while others suggest that there are limitations to the studies that suggest this cognitive enhancement. As an example, Aşçioglu, Dolu, Gölgeli, Süer, and Özesmi (2004) state that their study showed there were “no significant effects” (p. 388) from the use of nicotine on cognitive functioning. Amitai and Markou (2009) compared nicotine studies in rats and in humans and found that some of the studies showed an increase in cognition while others did not. In studies where they used chronic nicotine as opposed to acute nicotine Amitai and Markou (2009) found that cognition was enhanced, and working memory was enhanced. These authors pointed out that there have been no clear studies that specifically showed, consistently, that nicotine is a cognitive enhancer. Macdonald and Hartley (1986) state that nicotine inhibits cognition. The above studies are important because they suggest that through the years the idea of nicotine as a positive influence on people was probably part of what motivated these studies. Although they do not support this research, they do provide the opposite viewpoint which is also important when research is being conducted. Levin, McClernon and Rezvani (2006) studied past research in a variety of studies that were done with nicotine to understand its affect on the brain, cognition, and on memory. They found that there was evidence in both rats and human studies that nicotine was a cognitive enhancer. They found that nicotine helped conditions like Alzheimer’s, Attention Deficit Disorder with and without Hyperactivity (ADD/ADHD) and Schizophrenia. The researchers found that there was a positive correlation between nicotine use and these challenges and that it should be considered as helping. Levina, Bushnell and Rezvania (2011) assessed animal studies and found that in animals, nicotine as helped attention deficit disorders like ADD, Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s. The authors suggest that this information can be used to find new treatments for these disorders and others where memory is problematic. These studies show that there is a direct correlation between nicotine and cognition and that this should be studied to find out more about how these work. These studies support what this researcher is attempting and they will be useful to the study because they reinforce the idea that nicotine does help cognition. In another article, Begley (2011) quoted a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2010) that stated that nicotine had “significant positive effects” on short-term memory functioning, working memory, fine motor skills, and basic cognitive skills. The reason this happens, according to the report, is that “nicotine binds to the brain receptors for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine that are central players in cortical circuits” (Begley, 2011, p. 2). This research supports this researcher’s study because it again proves that cognition can be enhanced through the use of nicotine. Anderson (2007) studied the effects of the nicotine patch on recovering alcoholics and found that the nicotine patch, gum, or nasal spray helped cognition in alcoholics and would probably help them if they were provided. These studies show that there may be truth in the idea that nicotine can be a cognitive enhancer. Unique Contribution The unique contribution of this study is that it will enhance the literature on nicotine as a cognitive enhancer. The field seems to be evenly distributed with more studies stating that nicotine is a negative reinforce that is bad for the body. This study will give another study on the other side. The study will be different because it will use the nicotine patch instead of cigarettes. There are a few studies that experimented with the patch, but they there were more that used cigarette smoking as their method of experimentation. Independent Predictor and Dependent Criterion Variables The independent predictor for this study will be nicotine and whether it enhances or does not enhance cognition. The dependent criterion variable will be cognition. Some of the participants will have nicotine but others will not. Most of the studies set up control groups of people who did not use the nicotine to see whether having nicotine made a difference to their cognition. This research will do the same. Nicotine is defined as “a colorless, oily, water-soluble, …found in tobacco “ (Dictionary.com). “Cognition” is defined as “mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension, including thinking, knowing, remembering, judging and problem-solving” (Cherry, 2012). Hypothesis I predict that the study will show that nicotine is a cognitive enhancer and that it can be useful to people to increase their mental abilities. Expected Results After the study, it is predicted that those people using the nicotine patch will increase their cognition in a stronger way than those who do not use the nicotine patch. Reasons These Results are Expected In all the other studies that promoted nicotine as a cognitive enhancer, cognition was enhanced by the use of nicotine. As an example, the study by Levin, McClernon and Rezvani (2006) showed that nicotine was an enhancer, and that it has a positive effect on the brain, cognition, and memory. As stated previously, Ernst, Heishman, Spurgeon and London (2001) state that “tobacco and nicotine have a complex effect on human performance…” (p. 313). This being said, it would seem that the research done by this researcher would also promote similar results. Method Participants The participants in this study will be chosen through students in one psychology class at X university. There will be 30 students chosen randomly and assigned to a control group or an experimental group. They will be both male and female with the approximate ages of 25 to 45. All ethnicities will be accepted for this study. Those participating in the study will receive extra credit from their psychology teacher by writing a paper about their participation. Design The study will use an experimental design. The experiment will be between two groups, a control group and an experimental group. The participants in the experimental group will be given a series of cognitive tasks before and after the administration of nicotine. The control group will not be given nicotine. Both groups will be given the series of cognitive tasks. The experiment will compare the cognitive tasks between the control and the experimental group to see whether the experimental group has a better score on the cognitive tasks after the use of nicotine than those participants in the control group. The independent predictor for this study will be nicotine and whether it enhances or does not enhance cognition. The dependent criterion variable will be cognition. The scores on the set of cognitive tasks will be used to measure cognitive performance. Discussion The results of the study may have shown that nicotine is a cognitive enhancer. The results would show that the experimental group scored higher on the cognitive skill tests than the control group. There would be a variety of scores in which the experiment would show higher scores after the nicotine patch was used than before it was used. The findings would be consistent with the other studies that showed that nicotine was as cognitive enhancer for many cognitive deficiencies. They would be consistent because the literature is split on whether nicotine is a cognitive enhancer or not. The researcher did not find a particular theory that worked with this topic. Implications The practical implications of this study would show that Alzheimer’s and other cognitive challenges may become better if the individual is given a specific does of nicotine. Although cigarette smoking creates negative health issues, using other methods such as the patch may improve cognitive performance. This study would show that it enhanced the performance of healthy individuals. Limitations A potential factor that could change the outcomes of the study is if the students that participated did not provide a large enough sample to be effective for the study. As an example, if the study called for 30 and the researcher could only find 15 students, the study may be too small to make a difference. Students could be recruited from several psychology classes in order for the researcher to find 30 students. Another problem could be that some of the students dropped out before the study was finished which would make their information unavailable to the researcher. Also, the students would have to sign a consent form saying they were old enough to take the study and the proposal would probably have to go through the IRB in order to make sure that students would be treated fairly and no harm would be done to them. The students who would volunteer for the study may or may not have smoked previously so there may be some risk of addiction to nicotine for some students. Future Research Future research may include finding alternatives for administering nicotine. As an example, using a vaporization method may be a better health risk than using the smoking patch or cigarettes. There would need to be longitudinal studies that studied participants over several years to see if nicotine continued to enhance cognition. A future study could be done with people of different age groups. As an example, the age group of people between the ages of 45 and 65 may be an important study because this age group characteristically loses some cognitive functioning as they grow older. Variables of age, demographics, gender and ethnicity may have a bearing on how this research is conducted in the future. The study would be unable to answer whether nicotine would be helpful for Alzheimer’s or other cognitive conditions such as brain tumors, schizophrenia, mood disorders or other situations where cognition may be impaired. Because the study is connected to a small group of people, it would not answer questions for larger groups, and it could not answer questions about groups over time. References Amitai, N. and Markou, A. (2009). Chronic nicotine improves cognitive performance in a test of attention but does not attenuate cognitive disruption induced by repeated phencyclidine administration. Psychopharmacology (Berl), 202 (1-3), 275-86. DOI 10.1007/s00213-008-1246-0 Anderson, P. (2007, December 6). Nicotine patch may improve cognition in recovering alcoholics who smoke. Medscape Medical News. Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/567045 Aşçioglu, M., Dolu, N., Gölgeli, A., Süer, C., & Özesmi, Ç. (2004). Effects of cigarette smoking on cognitive processing. International Journal Of Neuroscience, 114(3), 381-390. DOI: 10.1080/00207450490270668 Begley, S. (2011, January 3). Can you build a better brain? The Daily Beast. Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/01/03/can-you-build-a-better-brain.html Cherry, K. (2012). What Is Cognition? About.com. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/cindex/g/def_cognition.htm Dunne, M., Macdonald, D., & Hartley, L. (1986). The effects of nicotine upon memory and problem solving performance. Physiology & Behavior, 37(6), 849-854. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9384(86)80003-8 Ernst, M., Heishman, S. J., Spurgeon, L. & London, E. D. (2001). Smoking History and Nicotine Effects on Cognitive Performance. Neuropsychopharmacology, 25, 313-319. DOI: 10.1038/S0893-133X(01)00257-3 Feltenstein, M. W., Ghee, S. M., & See, R. E. (2012). Nicotine self-administration and reinstatement of nicotine-seeking in male and female rats. Drug & Alcohol Dependence, 121(3), 240-246. Goodwin, R. D., Grover, K. W., and Zvolensky, M. J. (2012). Does current versus former smoking play a role in the relationship between anxiety and mood disorders and nicotine dependence?. Addictive Behaviors, 37(5), 682-685 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2012.01.014 Levin, E. D., McClernon, F. J. and Rezvani, A. H. (2006). Nicotinic effects on cognitive function: behavioral characterization, pharmacological specification, and anatomic localization. Psychopharmacology, 184, 523–539, DOI 10.1007/s00213-005-0164-7 Levina, E. D., Bushnell, P. J. and Rezvania, A. H. (2011). Attention-modulating effects of cognitive enhancers. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 99 (2), 46-154DOI:10.1016/j.pbb.2011.02.008 Nicotine. (2012). Dictionary.com. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nicotine Winga, V. C., Bachera, I., Saccob, K. A., & Georgea, T. P. (2011). Neuropsychological performance in patients with schizophrenia and controls as a function of cigarette smoking status. Psychiatry Research, 188(3), 320-326. DOI: http://dx.doi.org.dml.regis.edu/10.1016/j.psychres.2011.05.037 Yaworski, D., Robinson, J., Sareen, J., & Bolton, J. M. (2011). The Relation Between Nicotine Dependence and Suicide Attempts in the General Population. Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry, 56(3), 161-170. Read More