Increases in impulsivity following smoking abstinence are related to baseline nicotine intake and boredom susceptibility

Trait impulsivity and response inhibition have been shown to be related to smoking behavior. One measure of response inhibition – antisaccade performance, or the ability to inhibit looking at a novel stimulus – has been shown to be worsened by smoking abstinence, improved by nicotine administration and predictive of smoking cessation outcomes. However, relations between antisaccade performance and measures of trait impulsivity have not been extensively evaluated in smokers. In the present study, twelve dependent smokers (n = 12) completed an eye tracking task following smoking as usual and overnight abstinence; and they completed baseline measures of trait impulsivity, smoking history and provided biological samples. As expected, overnight abstinence significantly increased antisaccade errors (p < 0.002) while having no effect on prosaccade performance. Abstinence-induced increases in antisaccade errors were positively correlated with baseline plasma cotinine and Sensation Seeking Scale Boredom Susceptibility, and negatively correlated with IQ. These results suggest that smoking abstinence significantly increases errors of response inhibition and that the magnitude of this increase is related to trait impulsivity and nicotine intake variables.