Effects of tobacco smoking and schizotypal personality on spectral contents of spontaneous EEG.

Effects of chronic tobacco smoking on the spectral contents of spontaneous electroencephalogram (EEG) were examined in connection with schizotypal personality. EEG recorded from 19 smokers and 20 non-smokers college students were studied by means of parametric spectral estimation followed by a statistical analysis of differences. We observed that tobacco smoking affects EEG of high and low schizotypy individuals differently. Tobacco smoking may (with the probability exceeding 95%) lead to an increase in high frequency contents of EEG while evaluated for low schizotypy participants. For high schizotypy individuals, on the other hand, the most pronounced changes associated with smoking (increase of EEG power) arose in the low frequency rhythms. The most significant changes in spontaneous EEG-as attributed to smoking-were observed in the occipital region for both groups of high and low schizotypy participants. The observations are consistent with the finding reported on the schizophrenia patients and partially support the nicotine self-medication model.