Psychophysiological Responses to Tobacco Related Stimuli: Differences between Smokers and Non-Smokers

Emotional and motivational mechanisms have fundamental to explain the initiation and maintenance of tobacco use, however, results respect to differences in psychophysiological responses which serve as neurophysiological markers of emotional and motivational processes in smokers and nonsmokers have mixed results. The aim of the present study was to identify differences in psychophysiological responses to tobacco related stimuli in smokers and non-smokers, for this startle reflex and galvanic skin response was recorded while they were viewing pleasant, neutral, unpleasant and tobacco-related pictures. The results show that smokers inhibit the startle reflex to tobacco-related pictures in a similar way to pleasant pictures, additionally; smokers have greater inhibition of the startle reflex to tobacco-related pictures. No significant differences were found between groups in galvanic skin response. It is concluded that smokers activate the appetitive motivational system to cigarette-related cues.