December 13, 2000

Contact: Contact: Ranjit Arab, University Relations, (785) 864-8855.

Researchers will look at effects of smoking on the brain

LAWRENCE -- Cigarette smokers often claim that smoking keeps them mentally sharp by improving their concentration and even their memory, a belief researchers at the University of Kansas and Midwest Research Institute propose to test with the help of a new $20,000 grant.

"Tobacco companies have argued that [improved mental processes] -- not addiction -- are why people smoke," said James Grobe, KU assistant professor of psychology. "However, there is ample evidence that tobacco use can be addictive, and we hope to examine the cognitive and behavioral aspects of addiction."

There are not many objective studies on the effects of tobacco smoking and nicotine addiction on mental processes, such as concentration and memory, and, of the studies that do exist, many are not scientifically sound.

But thanks to one of two $20,000 pilot grants recently awarded by the KUMRI Strategic Alliance -- an alliance to promote collaboration between KU and the Midwest Research Institute in Kansas City, Mo. -- a team of researchers will be able to take an objective and comprehensive look at the effects of smoking.

Grobe and Mary Gerkovich, head of the Behavioral Sciences Section at MRI, have devised a new research model for exploring tobacco's effects. They will use the pilot grant to collect preliminary data, which in turn may attract a larger federal grant, and thus further their research efforts.

Existing research has relied on a model where the experimenter gives the participant nicotine or tobacco and then immediately measures the effects during a series of mental tests. Under this model, the participant has little control over drug intake, even though, in their natural environment, smokers have complete control over when and how much they want to smoke.

Research has demonstrated that drug intake controlled by the subject can produce dramatically different effects from drug intake controlled by the experimenter. In some cases, experiments will yield opposite results depending on how much control the participant has over drug intake, Grobe said.

To avoid these inconsistencies, Grobe and Gerkovich have developed a system that tests each smoker twice.

In the first session, subjects have control over their smoking during a series of mental tests. During this session, subjects' pattern and amount of tobacco smoking will be recorded by computer.

In a subsequent session, subjects will complete the same series of tests, but they will not have control over tobacco smoking. Instead, they will be administered tobacco or nicotine according to the patterns and amounts determined in the earlier smoking session. This process allows the scientists to manipulate the control while attempting to imitate the pattern and amount of the smoker's regular tobacco intake, Grobe said.

William Duncan, vice president for technical operations at MRI, said the recent grants were beneficial to both KU and MRI, encouraging them to combine support services and instrumentation. But more importantly, he said, such studies were helping establish Kansas City as a major center for life sciences research.

"All of these things are simply generating more and more scientific activity in the Kansas City region," he said. "It's really difficult to be an island anymore -- that is, to have all the capabilities and resources needed to undertake a multidisciplinary research project."

Along with pooling resources, Grobe said he was looking forward to the diversity of ideas that the collaboration would bring.

"Without the support of the KUMRI Alliance, it would be very difficult to draw these people together for such a project," Grobe said. "To me, the most exciting part is the potential for creativity that far exceeds any of us working on this project on our own."