Acute effect of nicotine on non-smokers: II. MLRs and 40-Hz responses

This paper is the second in a series of three investigating the role of cho linergic mechanisms in the auditory system by assessing the acute effects o f nicotine, an acetylcholinomimetic drug, on aggregate responses within the auditory pathway. In a single-blind procedure, auditory responses were obt ained from 20 normal-hearing, non-smokers (10 male) under two conditions (n icotine, placebo). The effects of nicotine on central, mesogenous responses of the auditory system (middle latency and 40-Hz responses) are described in this second paper. Results indicated that transdermal administration of nicotine to non-smokers does significantly affect the central, neural trans mission of acoustic information. Na-Pa amplitude and Nb latency of the midd le latency response and latency measures of the 40-Hz response were acutely altered by the presence of nicotine. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All ri ghts reserved.