SynthesisBiological psychiatry2015
Neurobiological impact of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonists: an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of pharmacologic neuroimaging studies.
Synthesis in Biological psychiatry, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 34 papers, 2 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.
Nicotinic Modulation of the Cognitive Control System in Late-life Depression
Nicotinic Modulation of the Cognitive Control System in Late-Life Depression (R33 Phase)
Open Label Extension Study of Depressed Mood Improvement Through Nicotine (Depressed MIND3)
Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neuroimaging meta-analysis of cannabis use studies reveals convergent functional alterations in brain regions supporting cognitive control and reward processing.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2018Pooled 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
- Short-term nicotine deprivation alters dorsal anterior cingulate glutamate concentration and concomitant cingulate-cortical functional connectivity.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- Nicotine normalizes cortico-striatal connectivity in non-smoking individuals with major depressive disorder.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- Altered Brain Dynamics in Heavy Smokers Revealed by Dynamic Functional Network Connectivity Analysis.Brain topography · 2026Article
- Altered Regional Brain Activity Underlying the Higher Postoperative Analgesic Requirements in Abstinent Smokers: A Prospective Cohort Study.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Subregion-specific associations of the basal forebrain with sleep and cognition in Parkinson's disease.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2025Article
- Visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease: spotlight on central cholinergic dysfunction.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2025Review
- Neuroimaging Biomarkers in Addiction.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- Altered executive control network and default model network topology are linked to acute electronic cigarette use: A resting-state fNIRS study.Addiction biology · 2024Article
- Cholinergic modulation supports dynamic switching of resting state networks through selective DMN suppression.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- The central role of the Thalamus in psychosis, lessons from neurodegenerative diseases and psychedelics.Translational psychiatry · 2023Review
- Demographics, clinical characteristics and cognitive symptoms of heavy smokers and non-heavy smokers in Chinese male patients with chronic schizophrenia.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2022Article
- Association of PolymorphismInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Nicotinic receptor modulation of the default mode network.Psychopharmacology · 2021Article
- The role of acetylcholine in negative encoding bias: Too much of a good thing?The European journal of neuroscience · 2021Review
- The insula in nicotine use disorder: Functional neuroimaging and implications for neuromodulation.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2019Review
- Low Smoking Exposure, the Adolescent Brain, and the Modulating Role of CHRNA5 Polymorphisms.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2019Article
- Oral Contraceptives and Cigarette Smoking: A Review of the Literature and Future Directions.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2019Review
- Mega-Analysis of Gray Matter Volume in Substance Dependence: General and Substance-Specific Regional Effects.The American journal of psychiatry · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundNicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) agonists augment cognition among cigarette smokers and nonsmokers, yet the systems-level neurobiological mechanisms underlying such improvements are not fully understood. Aggregating neuroimaging results regarding nAChR agonists provides a means to identify common functional brain changes that may be related to procognitive drug effects.
methodsWe conducted a meta-analysis of pharmacologic neuroimaging studies within the activation likelihood estimation framework. We identified published studies contrasting a nAChR drug condition versus a baseline and coded each contrast by activity change direction (decrease or increase), participant characteristics (smokers or nonsmokers), and drug manipulation employed (pharmacologic administration or cigarette smoking).
resultsWhen considering all studies, nAChR agonist administration was associated with activity decreases in multiple regions, including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), parahippocampus, insula, and the parietal and precentral cortices. Conversely, activity increases were observed in lateral frontoparietal cortices, the anterior cingulate cortex, thalamus, and cuneus. Exploratory analyses indicated that both smokers and nonsmokers showed activity decreases in the vmPFC and PCC, and increases in lateral frontoparietal regions. Among smokers, both pharmacologic administration and cigarette smoking were associated with activity decreases in the vmPFC, PCC, and insula and increases in the lateral PFC, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, thalamus, and cuneus.
conclusionsThese results provide support for the systems-level perspective that nAChR agonists suppress activity in default-mode network regions and enhance activity in executive control network regions in addition to reducing activation of some task-related regions. We speculate these are potential mechanisms by which nAChR agonists enhance cognition.
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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.