West R J, Jarvis M J
Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1986 Oct;25(4):727-31. doi: 10.1016/0091-3057(86)90377-1.
Five experiments were conducted investigating the effects of nicotine on finger tapping rate in non-smokers. In each experiment subjects tapped as fast as possible a fixed number of times with one finger on a conventional computer keyboard. In the first experiment tapping rate was increased by two 2 mg doses of a nasal nicotine solution (NNS) but not by an inactive solution. The second study was carried out double-blind and showed that a single 2 mg dose of NNS improved tapping performance by about 5% whereas a very low dose (0.15 mg) NNS and a placebo had no effect. The effect of the NNS was to bring about a sustained increase in tapping rate from the start of each trial. The third study found that the effect of nicotine on tapping was reduced by a single 2.5 mg dose of the central cholinergic blocking agent, mecamylamine, but not by a placebo. Experiment four followed tapping rate for one hour after a dose of two 2 mg NNS and showed that within a subject this behavioural measure can provide a very consistent and sensitive bio-assay of the time course of nicotine effects. The final experiment found that repeated dosing with one 2 mg NNS on an hourly schedule for six hours produced a reliable increase in tapping speed after each dose with no evidence of acute tolerance. The results indicate that nicotine can substantially improve performance by non-smokers on a simple motor task, probably via its action on cholinergic pathways. NNS provides for the first time an effective means of examining the effects of nicotine on non-smokers.
进行了五项实验，研究尼古丁对不吸烟者手指敲击速度的影响。在每项实验中，受试者用一根手指在传统电脑键盘上尽可能快地敲击固定次数。在第一项实验中，两次2毫克剂量的鼻腔尼古丁溶液（NNS）使敲击速度提高，但无活性溶液则没有这种效果。第二项研究采用双盲法进行，结果显示，单次2毫克剂量的NNS使敲击表现提高了约5%，而极低剂量（0.15毫克）的NNS和安慰剂则没有效果。NNS的作用是使每次试验开始时敲击速度持续增加。第三项研究发现，单次2.5毫克剂量的中枢胆碱能阻断剂美加明可降低尼古丁对敲击的影响，但安慰剂则无此作用。实验四在给予两次2毫克NNS后跟踪敲击速度一小时，结果表明，在个体内部，这种行为测量方法可以为尼古丁作用的时间进程提供非常一致且敏感的生物测定。最后一项实验发现，每小时一次、每次2毫克的NNS重复给药六小时，每次给药后敲击速度都可靠增加，且没有急性耐受的迹象。结果表明，尼古丁可能通过作用于胆碱能途径，大幅提高不吸烟者在简单运动任务中的表现。NNS首次提供了一种有效手段来研究尼古丁对不吸烟者的影响。
