EFFECTS OF TOBACCO SMOKING, SCHIZOTYPY AND NUMBER OF PRE-EXPOSURES ONLATENT INHIBITION IN HEALTHY-SUBJECTS

Latent inhibition is a slowing of learning about a stimulus that when previously experienced had no consequences. This study investigated th e effects of tobacco smoking and personality traits on a latent inhibi tion task. Two-hundred and five healthy adults performed an auditory m asking task during which half of them were pre-exposed to bursts of wh ite noise. All subjects were then asked to detect an association of th e white noise with a change on a computer screen. Subjects who had hea rd the white noises before were slower to learn the association than s ubjects who had not, i.e. they showed latent inhibition. Latent inhibi tion was stronger when subjects were pre-exposed to 10 rather than 6 b ursts of white noise. Latent inhibition was reduced in subjects who sm oked tobacco and in non-smoking subjects who scored highly on a schizo typy questionnaire. These two effects were independent. We conclude th at tobacco smoking should be taken into account in interpreting the re sults of human latent inhibition studies.