A multimodal genomic imaging study on the effects of nicotine and nicotine withdrawal on brain circuits using simultaneous EEG/EMG, fMRI and PET

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Gerhard Gründer; Professor Nadim Jon Shah, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Georg Winterer
• Subject Area: Biological Psychiatry
• Term: from 2006 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 24839794

Nicotine is improving attentional capacity which goes along with an activation of the attentional network in the brain. So far, however, it is unresolved whether nicotine is used for the purpose of self-medication by those nicotine-dependent subjects who suffer from subclinical or clinical attentional deficits which may sustain nicotine addiction. In the present study, we investigate healthy subjects and schizophrenic patients who frequently show very low attentional capacity with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electrophysiology (EEG) during attention-requiring tasks to assess the level of attentional network activity. It is anticipated that low attentional network activity (during baseline condition, after nicotine challenge and after withdrawal) predicts the degree of nicotine dependence including the strength of withdrawal symptoms and relapse rate after smoking cessation. In addition, we expect that functional variations within alpha4beta2 nAch receptor genotype are associated with attentional capacity and -by extension - with nicotine dependence.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1226: Nicotine: Molecular and Physiological Effects in the Central Nervous System (CNS)
• Participating Persons: Privatdozent Dr. Arian Mobascher; Professorin Dr. Irene Neuner; Dr. Katja Spreckelmeyer