NEUROELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE SMOKING HABIT

It is widely believed that the rewarding properties of substances whic h are used and abused for psychological purposes are related to their ability to modulate central brain processes subserving mood, cognition and behaviour. Human research into the motivationally relevant factor s mediating repeated substance use, including tobacco, can strategical ly benefit from the utilization of non-invasive central measurements w hich are able to probe brain states in concert with substance ingestio n. This paper reports on a series of investigations employing two elec trophysiological tools, quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs), for the purpose of characterizing the smoking-induced neuroelectric profile and its underlying mechanisms. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.