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The effects of acute abstinence from smoking and performance-based rewards on performance monitoring

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Abstract

Rationale

Abstinence from smoking disrupts performance in multiple cognitive domains, and such cognitive effects may serve to maintain smoking behavior. Rather than having specific effects on a narrow domain of processing, abstinence may disrupt more general cognitive control processes and/or motivation.

Objectives

The present study tested the prediction that overnight abstinence from smoking would disrupt a general performance monitoring system indexed via the error-related negativity (ERN). A secondary aim was to determine the extent to which performance-based monetary rewards improved the ERN among smokers and whether the effect of the reward was diminished during abstinence.

Methods

The ERN was assessed during a flanker task among 25 heavy, non-treatment-seeking smokers both when smoking as usual and after overnight abstinence; reward and no-reward trial blocks occurred within each session.

Results

As predicted, mean ERN amplitude was reduced during abstinence. The ERN was enhanced by reward; this effect did not vary with smoking abstinence.

Conclusion

This study provides novel data which suggest that acute abstinence from smoking disrupts a neurophysiological index of a general performance monitoring system that is involved in a range of cognitive functions. The ERN may be a useful complement to narrow-band cognitive studies of abstinence and interventions designed to target cognition in addiction. Because the ERN was concurrently sensitive to abstinence and performance-based incentives, it may be particularly useful for examining the interplay of cognition and motivation in smoking and smoking cessation.

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Notes

  1. Self-report data were missing from one participant during the abstinence visit due to computer failure.

  2. We had hoped to examine the impact of abstinence on the feedback-related negativity (FRN). Although all participants met the recommended minimum of six trials per condition for the ERN (Olvet and Hajcak 2009), only 56 % met the recommended minimum of 20 trials per condition for the FRN (Marco-Pallares et al. 2010). Given the small subsample (n = 14), the FRN was never analyzed.

  3. Grand average waveforms for all valid correct and incorrect trials were collapsed across congruency. This approach was favored for two reasons. First, we sought to maximize the number of error trials included in waveform computations for the purpose of stability. Second, participants committed very few errors on congruent trials during no reward blocks (abstinent: M = 3.9, SD = 4.2, range = 0–15; smoking: M = 3.3, SD = 3.2, range = 0–11) as well as reward blocks (abstinent: M = 2.3, SD = 3.4, range = 0–14; smoking: M = 1.9, SD = 2.3, range = 0–7).

  4. Supplemental RT analyses evaluated fast error trials (rather than all error trials) and fast correct trials. Mean reaction time did not differ by smoke condition [F(1,5) = 3.28, p = 0.13]. RTs were faster for error trials [F(1,5) = 19.51, p = 0.007, d = 1.80], but did not interact with smoke condition [F(1,5) = 2.59, p = 0.17]. A main effect of congruency was present and indicated that RTs were significantly slower on incongruent trials [F(1,5) = 15.93, p = 0.01, d = 0.99]. The congruency × accuracy [F(1,5) = 2.58, p = 0.17] and smoke condition × congruency × accuracy interactions [F(1,5) = 2.72, p = 0.16] were not significant. Reward had no effect on RTs [F(1,5) = 0.01, p = 0.93]. Similarly, all interactions involving reward were not significant (all F < 0.73, all p > 0.43).

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Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the assistance of Rebecca Ashare with recruitment and Nicholas Albino with data collection. We are grateful to Stephen Tiffany for his feedback and suggestions throughout the project and on prior versions of the manuscript. We also thank the reviewers for their suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo, 230 Park Hall, Buffalo, NY, 14260-4110, USA

    Nicolas J. Schlienz, Larry W. Hawk Jr. & Keri S. Rosch

  2. Center for Children and Families, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Larry W. Hawk Jr.

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  1. Nicolas J. Schlienz
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Correspondence to Larry W. Hawk Jr..

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This research was completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the doctoral degree of NJS under the supervision of LWH. KSR is now at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. Portions of this research were presented at 2011 Annual Meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.

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Schlienz, N.J., Hawk, L.W. & Rosch, K.S. The effects of acute abstinence from smoking and performance-based rewards on performance monitoring. Psychopharmacology 229, 701–711 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-013-3131-8

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