Modeling the effects of nicotine on a continuous performance task

We have developed a neurocomputational model of some attentional e!ects of nicotine. Our simulations reproduce results showing smoking abstinence to impair performance on a rapid visual information processing task involving detecting sequences of even or odd digits. Our model treats presence of nicotine as enhancement of modulatory acetylcholine signals, which focus attention on task-relevant stimuli. Our network includes cholinergic signals from nucleus basalis; working memory representations in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; inputs to nucleus basalis from entorhinal cortex; and recency signals. Digits are represented at entorhinal, nucleus basalis, and dorsolateral levels, along with dorsolateral representations of the concepts “even” and “odd.” c © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.