SynthesisPsychopharmacology2010
Meta-analysis of the acute effects of nicotine and smoking on human performance.
Synthesis in Psychopharmacology, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03091699 (The Acute Effects of Moderate Intensity Exercise and Nicotine on Cognition in Smokers), which is not on this map. Cited by 313 papers, 11 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Acute Effects of Moderate Intensity Exercise and Nicotine on Cognition in Smokers
Who cites it
313 citing papers in PubMed, 11 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 643 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neuropsychological effects of cannabis use by continent and age: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- The Association Between Chronic Tobacco Smoking and Brain Alterations in Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2025Pooled it
- Chronic tobacco smoking and neurocognitive impairments in adolescents and young adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Deprivation Has Inconsistent Effects on Delay Discounting: A Review.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- The two-way relationship between nicotine and cortical activity: a systematic review of neurobiological and treatment aspects.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Zebrafish as an alternative method for determining the embryo toxicity of plant products: a systematic review.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2018Pooled it
- Overview of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems: A Systematic Review.American journal of preventive medicine · 2017Pooled it
- Behavioural tasks sensitive to acute abstinence and predictive of smoking cessation success: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2016Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Chronic cigarette smoking is linked with structural alterations in brain regions showing acute nicotinic drug-induced functional modulations.Behavioral and brain functions : BBF · 2016Pooled it
- Neurobiological impact of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists: an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of pharmacologic neuroimaging studies.Biological psychiatry · 2015Pooled it
- Acute Effects of Nicotine on Non-Drug-Related Reward in Smokers and Non-Smokers.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025Trial
- Switching from menthol to non-menthol cigarettes does not impact acute responses to intravenous nicotine.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2025Trial
- Effects of open-label transdermal nicotine antidepressant augmentation on affective symptoms and executive function in late-life depression.Journal of affective disorders · 2024Trial
- Cigarette smoking and cognitive task performance: Experimental effects of very-low nicotine-content cigarettes.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- An exploratory, randomised, crossover study to investigate the effect of nicotine on cognitive function in healthy adult smokers who use an electronic cigarette after a period of smoking abstinence.Harm reduction journal · 2024Trial
- Acetylcholine and noradrenaline enhance foraging optimality in humans.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Trial
- Impact of delivery rate on the acute response to intravenous nicotine: A human laboratory study with implications for regulatory science.Addiction biology · 2022Trial
- Acute effects of inhaled menthol on cognitive effects of intravenous nicotine among young adult cigarette smokers.Addictive behaviors · 2021Trial
- Nicotine supplementation enhances simulated game performance of archery athletes.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2021Trial
253 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
RATIONALE AND
objectiveEmpirical studies indicate that nicotine enhances some aspects of attention and cognition, suggesting a role in the maintenance of tobacco dependence. The purpose of this review was to update the literature since our previous review (Heishman et al. Exp Clin Psychopharmacol 2:345-395, 1994) and to determine which aspects of human performance were most sensitive to the effects of nicotine and smoking.
methodsWe conducted a meta-analysis on the outcome measures of 41 double-blind, placebo-controlled laboratory studies published from 1994 to 2008. In all studies, nicotine was administered, and performance was assessed in healthy adult nonsmokers or smokers who were not tobacco-deprived or minimally deprived (<or=2 h).
resultsThere were sufficient effect size data to conduct meta-analyses on nine performance domains, including motor abilities, alerting and orienting attention, and episodic and working memory. We found significant positive effects of nicotine or smoking on six domains: fine motor, alerting attention-accuracy and response time (RT), orienting attention-RT, short-term episodic memory-accuracy, and working memory-RT (effect size range = 0.16 to 0.44).
conclusionsThe significant effects of nicotine on motor abilities, attention, and memory likely represent true performance enhancement because they are not confounded by withdrawal relief. The beneficial cognitive effects of nicotine have implications for initiation of smoking and maintenance of tobacco dependence.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.