A behavioural and functional neuroimaging investigation into the effects of nicotine on sensorimotor gating in healthy subjects and persons with schizophrenia

摘要

Schizophrenia patients display an excessive rate of smoking compared to the general population. Nicotine increases acoustic prepulse inhibition (PPI) in animals as well as healthy humans, suggesting that smoking may provide a way of restoring deficient sensorimotor gating in schizophrenia. No previous study has examined the neural mechanisms of the effect of nicotine on PPI in humans.