Effects of smoking status on punishment sensitivity and cognitive control

Abstract

A hallmark feature of addiction, including nicotine dependence, is persistent drug use despite the adverse consequences of such behaviour. This implies that there may be deficient processing of punishment in dependent individuals. However, despite growing bodies of research investigating both altered reward sensitivity and error monitoring deficits there is a paucity of empirical work investigating sensitivity to punishment in nicotine dependence. The main aim of this thesis was therefore to investigate the effects of satiation level (abstinent/satiated) and smoking history (current/former/never) on behavioural measures of punishment sensitivity. Furthermore, the related phenomenon of loss aversion (the tendency for individuals to be more sensitive to losses compared to gains) was investigated in former smokers alongside a range of self-control indices.

Date of Award	Jan 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Brighton