Electrophysiological Evidence of Event-Related Potential Changes Induced by 12 h Abstinence in Young Smokers Based on the Flanker Study

Yongting Cui; Fang Dong; Xiaojian Li; Dongdong Xie; Yongxin Cheng; Shiyu Tian; Ting Xue; Yangding Li; Ming Zhang; Yan Ren; Kai Yuan; Dahua Yu

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00424

Electrophysiological Evidence of Event-Related Potential Changes Induced by 12 h Abstinence in Young Smokers Based on the Flanker Study

Front Psychiatry. 2020 May 22:11:424. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00424. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Yongting Cui¹, Fang Dong¹, Xiaojian Li¹, Dongdong Xie¹, Yongxin Cheng¹, Shiyu Tian¹, Ting Xue¹, Yangding Li², Ming Zhang¹, Yan Ren¹, Kai Yuan^{1

3}, Dahua Yu¹

Affiliations

¹ Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Pattern Recognition and Intelligent Image Processing, School of Information Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, China.
² College of Information Science and Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China.
³ Life Sciences Research Center, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, China.

Abstract

The cognitive control processes may be disrupted by abstinence in smokers, which may be helpful in the development and maintenance of addictive behavior. The purpose of this study was to measure the performance of cognitive task after 12 h of smoking abstinence by using event-related potentials (ERPs), including the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe). In Eriksen flanker task, electroencephalography (EEG) signals of 24 smokers were recorded in two conditions: satiety and 12 h abstinence. In the behavioral data, both conditions exhibited more errors and more time on the incongruent trials than congruence. Meantime, the Minnesota Nicotine Withdrawal Scale (MNWS) score was increased during abstinence. Smokers showed reduced ERN and Pe after 12 h of abstinence, compared with satiety condition. The results indicate that the diminished error processing in young smokers after 12 h of abstinence. It may be related to increased withdrawal symptoms. In conclusion, the disrupted neurophysiological indexes in the general behavior monitoring system may be caused by abstinence. The results of this study may provide us with new ideas about the effects of short-term abstinence on brain cognitive neuroscience and be helpful for the solution of relapse.

Keywords: abstinence; adolescent smokers; error processing; event-related potential (ERP); performance monitoring.