Stimulus functions of nicotine

Abstract

Behavioral pharmacology has made vital contributions to the concepts and methods used in tobacco and other drug use research, and is largely responsible for the now generally accepted notion that nicotine is the primary component in tobacco that engenders and maintains tobacco use. One of the most important contributions of behavioral pharmacology to the science of drug use is the notion that drugs can act as environmental stimuli that control behavior in many of the same ways as other stimuli (e.g., visual, gustatory, olfactory). The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of research that illustrates the respondent and operant stimulus functions of nicotine, using a contemporary taxonomy of stimulus functions as a general framework. Each function is formally defined and examples from research on the behavioral pharmacology of nicotine are presented. Some of the factors that modulate each function are also discussed. The role of nicotine's stimulus functions in operant and respondent theories of tobacco use is examined and some suggestions for future research are presented. The chapter illustrates how a taxonomy of stimulus functions can guide conceptions of tobacco use and direct research and theory accordingly.

Keywords: Behavior analysis; Behavioral pharmacology; Nicotine; Operant conditioning; Respondent conditioning; Stimulus functions.