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PubMed2005

Contributions of temporal and place cues in pitch perception in absolute pitch possessors.

Pitch perception is determined by both place and temporal cues. To explore whether the manner in which these cues are used differs depending on absolute pitch capability, pitch identification experiments with and without pitch references were conducted for subjects with different absolute pitch capabilities and musical experience. Three types of stimuli were used to manipulate place and temporal cues separately: narrowband noises, which provide strong place cues but less salient temporal cues; iterated rippled noises, which provide strong temporal cues but less salient place cues; and sinusoidal tones, which provide both. The results indicated that absolute pitch possessors utilize temporal cues more effectively when they identify musical chroma With regard to the judgment of height, it was indicated that place cues play an important role for both absolute and nonabsolute pitch possessors.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Role of 5-HT1B, 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors in the generalization of 5-HT receptor agonists to the ethanol cue in the rat.

Although accumulating evidence suggests that serotonergic drugs are able to substitute for the ethanol (EtOH) cue in rats, it is still unclear which 5-HT receptor subtypes are responsible for this phenomenon, and whether these receptors are critically involved in the EtOH cue. In the present study, rats were trained to discriminate EtOH (1000 mg/kg, i.p., t-15 min) from saline in a two-lever food-reinforced procedure, and it was investigated to which extent serotonergic compounds with a certain level of specificity for either 5-HT1B, 5-HT2A or 5-HT2C receptors generalized to the EtOH cue. Subsequently, the involvement of these receptor subtypes was ascertained by the use of selected 5-HT receptor antagonists. The 5-HT1B receptor agonist CP 94,253 (0.3-5 mg/kg, i.p.) and the mixed 5-HT(2C/1B) receptor agonist mCPP (0.1-1 mg/kg, i.p.), but not the preferential 5-HT2A receptor agonist DOI (0.3-1 mg/kg, i.p.), completely generalized to the EtOH cue. Complete generalization of the former two compounds coincided with a decrease in response rate. In antagonism studies, it was shown that the 5-HT1B receptor antagonist GR 127935 (10 mg/kg, i.p.) completely blocked generalization of CP 94,253 to the EtOH cue, suggesting that stimulation of 5-HT1B receptors produces discriminative stimulus effects which are similar to those of EtOH. GR 127935 (10 mg/kg, i.p.), as well as the mixed 5-HT(1B/2C) receptor antagonist metergoline (1 mg/kg, i.p.), and the 5-HT2C receptor antagonist SB 206,553 (1 mg/kg, i.p.) completely blocked generalization of mCPP to the EtOH cue. This suggests that 5-HT1B and 5-HT2C receptors are required for the generalization of mCPP to the EtOH cue. The present findings indicate that activation of 5-HT1B and 5-HT2C, but not of 5-HT2A receptors, mimics the EtOH cue. However, the finding that neither metergoline, nor the 5-HT2A receptor antagonist MDL 100,907 blocked the EtOH cue, suggests that these receptors play only a minor role in the discriminative stimulus effects of a moderately low dose of EtOH.

Alcohol Drinking↗

PubMed2001

Incentive sensitization by previous amphetamine exposure: increased cue-triggered "wanting" for sucrose reward.

We reported previously that an amphetamine microinjection into the nucleus accumbens enables Pavlovian reward cues in a conditioned incentive paradigm to trigger excessive instrumental pursuit. Here we show that sensitization caused by previous amphetamine administration also causes reward cues to trigger excessive pursuit of their associated reward, even when sensitized rats are tested in a drug-free state. Rats learned to lever press for sucrose pellets, and they separately learned to associate sucrose pellets with Pavlovian cues (30 sec auditory cues). Amphetamine sensitization was induced by six daily injections of amphetamine (3 mg/kg, i.p.; controls received saline). Rats were tested for lever pressing under extinction conditions 10 d later, after a bilateral microinjection of intra-accumbens vehicle or amphetamine (5 microg/0.5 microl per side). Cue-triggered pursuit of sucrose reward was assessed by increases in pressing on the sucrose-associated lever during intermittent presentations of a free conditioned stimulus (CS+) sucrose cue. Sensitized rats pressed at normal levels during baseline and during the CS-, but the CS+ triggered 100% greater increases in pressing from sensitized rats than from control rats after vehicle microinjection. Sensitization therefore enhanced the incentive salience attributed to the CS+ even when rats were tested while drug-free. For control rats, a microinjection of intra-accumbens amphetamine was needed to produce the same enhancement of cue-triggered reward "wanting." The amphetamine microinjection also interacted synergistically in sensitized rats to produce intrusive cue-triggered pursuit behaviors (e.g., investigatory sniffing) that interfered with goal-directed lever pressing. These results support the incentive-sensitization theory postulate that sensitization causes excessive cue-triggered "wanting" for an associated reward.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1985

Development of knowledge about the use of cues to aid prospective retrieval.

Retrieval cues can be used to help one remember to perform tasks in the future and to relocate objects in the environment. However, in both tasks there are requirements for a retrieval cue to be effective as a mnemonic aid. For example, the cue must be associated with the target item, but it must not be ambiguous, and it must be appropriately placed. 2 studies assessed children's ability to evaluate the communicative quality of retrieval cues. In Study 1, 5-9-year-old children and adults evaluated the potential effectiveness of cues to remind themselves. In Study 2, 4-9-year-olds evaluated the potential effectiveness of cues for relocating hidden objects. Patterns of results were similar in both studies: young children first learned that the retrieval cue should be associated with the target and should be encountered for retrieval to occur. However, children often overlooked problems with the potential informativeness of the cues, such as ambiguity, and did not anticipate that such cues might be misinterpreted in the future. Children's difficulty in estimating their information needs may be related to their difficulty in monitoring their current comprehension state.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Perceived predation risk as a function of predator dietary cues in terrestrial salamanders.

Prey often avoid predator chemical cues, and in aquatic systems, prey may even appraise predation risk via cues associated with the predator's diet. However, this relationship has not been shown for terrestrial predator-prey systems, where the proximity of predators and prey, and the intensity of predator chemical cues in the environment, may be less than in aquatic systems. In the laboratory, we tested behavioural responses (avoidance, habituation and activity) of terrestrial red-backed salamanders, Plethodon cinereus, to chemical cues from garter snakes, Thamnophis sirtalis, fed either red-backed salamanders or earthworms (Lumbricus spp.). We placed salamanders in arenas lined with paper towels pretreated with snake chemicals, and monitored salamander movements during 120 min. Salamanders avoided substrates preconditioned by earthworm-fed (avoidanceX+/-SE=91.1+/-2.5%, N=25) and salamander-fed (95.2+/-2.5%, N=25) snakes, when tested against untreated substrate (control). Salamanders avoided cues from salamander-fed snakes more strongly (75.2+/-5.5%, N=25) than earthworm-fed snakes when subjected to both treatments simultaneously, implying that salamanders were sensitive to predator diet. Salamanders tended to avoid snake substrate more strongly during the last 60 min of a trial, but activity patterns were similar between salamanders exposed exclusively to control substrate versus those subject to snake cues. In another experiment, salamanders failed to avoid cues from dead conspecifics, suggesting that the stronger avoidance of salamander-fed snakes in the previous experiment was not directly due to chemical cues emitted by predator-killed salamanders. Salamanders also did not discriminate between cues from a salamander-fed snake versus a salamander-fed snake that was recently switched (i.e. <14 days) to an earthworm diet. Our results imply that terrestrial salamanders are sensitive to perceived predation risk via by-products of predator diet, and that snake predators rather than dead salamanders may be largely responsible for the release of such chemicals. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1984

Locomotion in adult cats with early vestibular deprivation: visual cue substitution.

Four cats labyrinthectomized shortly after birth ( DELAB ) exhibited the classical vestibular syndrome and recovery, while their motor development was otherwise unimpaired. As adults, they were tested for visual vestibular substitution in a locomotor task with either orientation requirements (tilted platforms) or balance requirements (narrow platforms). Visual motion cues or static visual cues were controlled using normal or stroboscopic lighting, or darkness. Measurements of the average speed of locomotion showed that: - Although all cats increase their speed when more visual cues become available, a marked deficit occurs in darkness only in the DELAB cats. - With either vestibular cues alone or static visual cues alone, cats are able to reach the same level of performance in the tilted platform test, which suggests a total visual-vestibular interchangeability in orientation. - DELAB cats perform very poorly in the narrow rail test. - When continuous vision is allowed in the narrow rail test the DELABs ' performance rises but does not match that of the control group. - A specific deficit in balance for the DELAB group is thus reduced by normal continuous vision as compared to stroboscopic vision, suggesting a significant, though imperfect, substitution of motion visual cues for the missing dynamic vestibular cues. - Dynamic visual cues play only a minor role in most situations, when locomotory speed is high. This results support the view that both the vestibular and the visual system can subserve two distinct functions: - dynamic information may stabilize the stance in narrow unstable situations, during slow locomotion, - and static orientation cues may mainly control the direction for displacement. Possible interactions between head positioning and body orientation in the DELAB cats are discussed.

Animals↗

PubMed1995

Role of somatosensory and vestibular cues in attenuating visually induced human postural sway.

The purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of visual, vestibular, and somatosensory cues to the maintenance of stance in humans. Postural sway was induced by full-field, sinusoidal visual surround rotations about an axis at the level of the ankle joints. The influences of vestibular and somatosensory cues were characterized by comparing postural sway in normal and bilateral vestibular absent subjects in conditions that provided either accurate or inaccurate somatosensory orientation information. In normal subjects, the amplitude of visually induced sway reached a saturation level as stimulus amplitude increased. The saturation amplitude decreased with increasing stimulus frequency. No saturation phenomena were observed in subjects with vestibular loss, implying that vestibular cues were responsible for the saturation phenomenon. For visually induced sways below the saturation level, the stimulus-response curves for both normal subjects and subjects experiencing vestibular loss were nearly identical, implying (1) that normal subjects were not using vestibular information to attenuate their visually induced sway, possibly because sway was below a vestibular-related threshold level, and (2) that subjects with vestibular loss did not utilize visual cues to a greater extent than normal subjects; that is, a fundamental change in visual system "gain" was not used to compensate for a vestibular deficit. An unexpected finding was that the amplitude of body sway induced by visual surround motion could be almost 3 times greater than the amplitude of the visual stimulus in normal subjects and subjects with vestibular loss. This occurred in conditions where somatosensory cues were inaccurate and at low stimulus amplitudes. A control system model of visually induced postural sway was developed to explain this finding. For both subject groups, the amplitude of visually induced sway was smaller by a factor of about 4 in tests where somatosensory cues provided accurate versus inaccurate orientation information. This implied (1) that the subjects experiencing vestibular loss did not utilize somatosensory cues to a greater extent than normal subjects; that is, changes in somatosensory system "gain" were not used to compensate for a vestibular deficit, and (2) that the threshold for the use of vestibular cues in normal subjects was apparently lower in test conditions where somatosensory cues were providing accurate orientation information.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

The involvement of the nucleus accumbens in the ability of rats to switch to cue-directed behaviours.

Previous studies have shown that the dorsal striatum is involved in switching arbitrarily behaviour (switching to non cue-directed behaviours). These experiments also revealed that switching behaviour with the help of currently available sensory information (switching to cue-directed behaviours) was not influenced when striatal function was blocked. A number of studies suggested that the nucleus accumbens could mediate the latter type of switching. For testing this hypothesis we used the swimming-test as it allows for studying separately both cue-directed and non cue-directed behaviours. Rats with cannulae aimed at the nucleus accumbens were forced to swim after injection of distilled water (AD) or d-amphetamine (1-10 micrograms/0.5 microliter) in a circular water-tank from which there was no escape. Their behaviour was recorded and analysed according to the presence of cue-directed and non cue-directed behaviours. After six minutes a rope was introduced into the water-tank to determine whether the rats were able to change their behaviour with the help of this external stimulus as well. Rats treated with d-amphetamine showed an enhanced ability to switch to cue-directed behaviours in comparison with rats treated with AD. There was no effect on the ability to switch to non cue-directed behaviours. Furthermore there was a dose-dependent increase in the ability to escape along the rope. The results are taken as evidence that the nucleus accumbens is involved in switching to cue-directed behaviours.

Amphetamine↗

PubMed2001

Abstention during cue reactivity assessment is associated with better outcome among women with bulimia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE: To compare women with bulimia nervosa who abstained from eating during pretreatment cue reactivity assessment with those who ate. METHOD: 135 participants in a randomized clinical trial completed an assessment of cue reactivity to individualized high-risk binge foods prior to treatment. A broad range of physiological, self-report, and behavioral measures of cue reactivity was assessed. Primary, secondary, and tertiary outcome measures of eating disorder symptomatology were evaluated at pretreatment, midtreatment, posttreatment, and 6-month follow-up. RESULTS: As expected, women who abstained from eating during pretreatment cue reactivity assessment exhibited less cue reactivity than women who ate. This was especially evident for self-report measures of cue reactivity. Surprisingly, women who abstained from eating during pretreatment cue reactivity assessment also had significantly less eating disorder symptomatology at 6-month follow-up. DISCUSSION: Possible psychological mechanisms contributing to the superior outcome of women who abstained from eating during the cue reactivity assessment and implications for the assessment of cue reactivity are discussed.

Clinical Trial↗

PubMed2003

Role of chemical and visual cues in food recognition by leatherback posthatchlings (Dermochelys coriacea L).

We raised leatherback posthatchlings in the laboratory for up to 7 weeks to study the role of visual and chemical cues in food recognition and food-seeking behavior. Turtles were reared on a formulated (artificial gelatinous) diet and had no contact with test materials until experiments began. Subjects were presented with visual cues (a plastic jellyfish; white plastic shapes [circle, square, diamond] similar in surface area to the plastic model), chemical cues (homogenates of lion's mane jellyfish, Cyanea capillata; moon jellyfish, Aurelia aurita; and a ctenophore, Ocyropsis sp., introduced through a water filter outflow), and visual and chemical cues presented simultaneously. Visual stimuli evoked an increase in swimming activity, biting, diving, and orientation toward the object. Chemical cues elicited an increase in biting, and orientation into water currents (rheotaxis). When chemical and visual stimuli were combined, turtles ignored currents and oriented toward the visual stimuli. We conclude that both cues are used to search for, and locate, food but that visual cues may be of primary importance. We hypothesize that under natural conditions turtles locate food visually, then, as a consequence of feeding, associate chemical with visual cues. Chemical cues then may function alone as a feeding attractant.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1990

Hippocampal Complex Spike Cells do not Change Their Place Fields if the Goal is Moved Within a Cue Controlled Environment.

It has been shown that most hippocampal complex-spike cells fire at specific locations in relation to a set of controlled spatial cues and that they continue to fire in the appropriate places when the cues are removed (O'Keefe and Conway, 1978; O'Keefe and Speakman, 1987). However, the goal remained in a constant position relative to the controlled cues throughout these experiments. It is therefore possible that the unit firing was related to the goal location and not to the controlled cues as was suggested. For example, firing in a particular location might signal the rat's intention to make a particular turn towards the goal from that location and not the location itself. There are many reasons for believing that this is an unlikely class of explanations; nevertheless a test of this hypothesis was undertaken in the present experiment. Nineteen place units were recorded from three rats as they performed the task of finding the goal location. After obtaining an accurate picture of the place fields in relation to the controlled cues and the goal, the location of the goal relative to the cues was moved and the animal retrained to the new goal. After the new goal was being consistently chosen, a second picture of the place fields of the same units was obtained. If the fields were related to the environment created by the cues then they would remain the same during the two stages of the experiment. If they were related to the goal, or to the intended movements towards the goal, then they would rotate relative to the cues. As expected, the majority of place fields remained in the same place in relation to the cues during the two stages of the experiment and were not influenced by the goal relocation. In only two cases was there any suggestion that the place fields changed their location after the goal was moved. It was concluded that the activity of place cells is related to an animal's location in an environment and that the results accord with cognitive map theory of hippocampal function (O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978).

Journal Article↗

PubMed1986

Pioneer growth cone steering along a series of neuronal and non-neuronal cues of different affinities.

We have analyzed the morphology of over 5000 Ti1 pioneer growth cones labeled with anti-HRP, which reveals the disposition of axons, growth cone branches, and filopodia. Ti1 axon pathways typically consist of a sequence of 7 characteristically oriented segments, with a single, distinct reorientation point between each segment. Growth cones exhibit the same orientations and reorientations in a given region as do axon segments at later stages. The single, distinct reorientations suggest that growth cones make discrete switches between guidance cues as they grow. Ti1 growth cones are guided by various types of cues. A set of 3 immature identified neurons serves as nonadjacent guidepost cells and lies at the proximal end of 3 of the axon segments. To form another segment, growth cones reorient along a limb segment boundary within the epithelium. Growth cones also respond consistently to, and orient toward, a specific mesodermal cell, which may be a muscle pioneer. Thus, growth cones respond to at least 3 different types of cells in the leg. Ti1 growth cones exhibit a hierarchy of affinity for these cues. Guidepost neurons are the dominant cues in that contact with them reorients growth cones from guidance by the other types of cues. Growth cone branches are exclusively oriented to specific cues. Growth cones reorient by extending a branch directly to the cue of highest affinity and by withdrawing any branches that are extended to a cue of lesser affinity. A single filopodium in direct contact with a guidepost neuron can reorient a growth cone that still has multiple filopodia or even prominent branches specifically oriented to a previous cue of lesser affinity. These observations suggest that growth cone steering may not result simply from passive adhesion and filopodial traction, but may involve more active processes.

Axons↗

PubMed2005

The impact of subliminal abandonment and unification cues on eating behavior.

BACKGROUND: Subliminal presentation of visual abandonment cues leads to greater levels of eating, despite a lack of conscious awareness of the information involved. The current study examined whether this behavioral impact can be countered by the subliminal presentation of contradictory, counterschematic information (unification cues). METHOD: Ninety-six nonclinical women were presented with subliminal abandonment cues, either preceded or followed by neutral or unification cues. The dependent variable was the amount eaten after the task. RESULTS: Presenting subliminal unification information before or after the subliminal abandonment cue significantly reduced the amount eaten (relative to the impact of neutral cues). DISCUSSION: These findings are consistent with a model where preconscious processing of unification cues has the effect deactivating abandonment schemas, either through inoculation or restoration. Preconscious presentation of unification cues might play a role in the broader cognitive-behavioral treatment of bulimic behaviors.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Learning associations between places and visual cues without learning to navigate: neither fornix nor entorhinal cortex is required.

Rats with fornix transection, or with cytotoxic retrohippocampal lesions that removed entorhinal cortex plus ventral subiculum, performed a task that permits incidental learning about either allocentric (Allo) or egocentric (Ego) spatial cues without the need to navigate by them. Rats learned eight visual discriminations among computer-displayed scenes in a Y-maze, using the constant-negative paradigm. Every discrimination problem included two familiar scenes (constants) and many less familiar scenes (variables). On each trial, the rats chose between a constant and a variable scene, with the choice of the variable rewarded. In six problems, the two constant scenes had correlated spatial properties, either Allo (each constant appeared always in the same maze arm) or Ego (each constant always appeared in a fixed direction from the start arm) or both (Allo + Ego). In two No-Cue (NC) problems, the two constants appeared in randomly determined arms and directions. Intact rats learn problems with an added Allo or Ego cue faster than NC problems; this facilitation provides indirect evidence that they learn the associations between scenes and spatial cues, even though that is not required for problem solution. Fornix and retrohippocampal-lesioned groups learned NC problems at a similar rate to sham-operated controls and showed as much facilitation of learning by added spatial cues as did the controls; therefore, both lesion groups must have encoded the spatial cues and have incidentally learned their associations with particular constant scenes. Similar facilitation was seen in subgroups that had short or long prior experience with the apparatus and task. Therefore, neither major hippocampal input-output system is crucial for learning about allocentric or egocentric cues in this paradigm, which does not require rats to control their choices or navigation directly by spatial cues.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Inducible reproductive plasticity of the guppy Poecilia reticulata in response to predation cues.

Predation has long been described as one of the major driving forces in evolution. Guppies (Poecilia reticulata) from natural populations exposed to different predation pressures, were found to have different life history traits. Reproductive plasticity in response to direct predation cues has mainly been reported for invertebrates. The goals of the present study were to determine whether exposure to predation cues would induce reproductive phenotypic plasticity in female guppies and to determine whether the effective cues are visual, chemical, or a combination of both. In our first experiment, female guppies exposed to predation cues of the african cichlids Aulonocara nyassae increased their reproductive output by almost two fold, having larger brood-sizes and shorter brood-interval at the first spawn. This effect disappeared in the second spawn in the absence of predators. In the second experiment we found that exposure to the predators induced an increase in the brood-size regardless of whether the cue was: only visual, only chemical, visual and chemical or visual, chemical and tactile. The impacts of these cues were equally powerful on the tested variables and they did not have any cumulative effect. Similar to the results of the first experiment, this effect disappeared in the second spawn, in the absence of predation cues. The present study demonstrates a direct immediate and reversible effect of predation cues on guppy reproduction.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

PubMed1993

Attentional modulation of the phonetic significance of acoustic cues.

Four experiments addressing the role of attention in phonetic perception are reported. The first experiment shows that the relative importance of two cues to the voicing distinction changes when subjects must perform an arithmetic distractor task at the same time as identifying a speech stimulus. The contribution of voice onset time to phonetic labeling decreases when subjects are distracted, while that of FO onset frequency increases. The second experiment shows a similar pattern for two cues to the distinction between the vowels /i/ (as in "beat") and /I/ (as in "bit"). Under low attention conditions, formant pattern has a smaller effect on phonetic labeling while vowel duration has a larger effect. Together these experiments indicate that careful attention to speech perception is necessary for strong acoustic cues (voice-onset time and formant patterns) to achieve their full impact on phonetic labeling, while weaker acoustic cues (FO onset frequency and vowel duration) achieve their full impact on phonetic labeling without close attention. Experiment 3 shows that this pattern is obtained when the distractor task places little demand on verbal short-term memory. Experiment 4 provides a data set for testing formal models of the role of attention in speech perception. Attention is shown to influence the signal-to-noise ratio in the phonetic encoding of acoustic cues; the sustained phonetic contribution of weak cues without close attention stems from reduced competition from strong cues. This principle is instantiated in a network model in which the role of attention is to reduce noise in the phonetic encoding of acoustic cues. Implications of this work for understanding speech perception and general theories of the role of attention in perception are discussed.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2002

Place learning in scopolamine-treated rats: the roles of distal cues and catecholaminergic mediation.

Experiments 1 and 2 tested the hypothesis that cholinergic receptor antagonists impair place learning in a water maze by interfering with the processing of distal, visual cues. Extramaze cues were offered to rats in the form of geometrical patterns arranged on the inner circumference of a curtain surrounding the water maze. In Experiment 1 the animals were offered both the distal cues and proximal cues in the form of pingpong balls in fixed positions on the surface of the water while only distal cues were present in Experiment 2. Animals were injected with either scopolamine (0.5 mg/kg body wt) or saline 20 min prior to the daily place learning sessions. Upon reaching criterion level performance the animals were tested on "rotation" sessions on which the distal cues were displaced. The outcome of such "rotations" demonstrated that-regardless of the presence or absence of proximal cues-scopolamine-treated rats relied at least as much as normal animals on the distal cues. The acquisition phase of both Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated an almost complete lack of scopolamine-associated impairment in acquisition and performance of the place learning task. In Experiment 3 (when scopolamine was no longer administered) the subjects of Experiment 2 were exposed to a series of pharmacological "challenges" of their place learning performance and eventually to surgical ablation of the anteromedial prefrontal cortex. The outcome of the pharmacological challenges and the postoperative test of task performance demonstrated that the place learning performance of animals which had acquired the task under scopolamine was mediated by a neural substrate dissimilar to the substrate of task performance in normal animals. Rats acquiring the task while deprived of the cholinergic system demonstrated above-normal contributions to task mediation from catecholaminergic-probably dopaminergic-mechanisms and tentative results pointed to a "shift" toward prefrontal task mediation.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

Eye movements to smoking-related cues: effects of nicotine deprivation.

RATIONALE: According to recent theories of addiction, nicotine deprivation may influence biases in the orienting and maintenance of attention on smoking-related cues. OBJECTIVES: We examined the effect of nicotine deprivation on different aspects of attentional biases for smoking-related cues. METHODS: Smokers' eye movements to smoking-related and control pictures were assessed during a visual probe task under deprived and non-deprived conditions. RESULTS: When deprived, smokers maintained their gaze for longer on smoking-related than control cues, relative to when non-deprived. Deprivation also increased craving and pleasantness ratings of smoking cues. Across both deprived and non-deprived conditions, smokers were more likely to shift their gaze towards smoking cues and were faster to respond to probes replacing smoking cues, relative to non-smoking cues, but these attentional bias measures were not significantly affected by the deprivation manipulation. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest a selective effect of deprivation on the maintenance of attention on smoking-related cues.

Adult↗