Tobacco smoking is associated with impaired error monitoring

Abstract

Abstract Rationale: Addiction is associated with neurophysiological deficits in error monitoring (EM).EM refers to the continuous assessment of ongoing actions and comparing the outcomes of these actions with internal goals and standards, measured by, e.g., event-related potentials (ERPs). Yet, for tobacco smoking, despite being the largest and most lethal addictive substance globally, there is no firm conclusion on the relation with EM due to a paucity of studies. Objectives and methods: A large gender-balanced sample (N=94, of which 46 were people who smoke tobacco) was established. The Eriksen-flanker task, a widely used speeded response task known to result in error commission, was administered while recording the electroencephalogram (EEG). The error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe) were measured, as well as event-related oscillations (EROs) in the theta and delta frequency bands that are known to be actively involved in error monitoring. Results: The results showed a clear and consistently blunted ERN and Pe in smoking participants compared to non-smoking participants, providing important evidence for attenuated EM at multiple levels. Reduced power in event-related theta and delta oscillations corroborated these findings. Both errors and correct responses contributed to the findings, demonstrating their joint importance in EM. Conclusions: Deficient error monitoring was found for people who smoke tobacco, manifested as lower ERN and Pe, which appear to be driven by reduced theta and delta power, respectively. This shows that tobacco smoking is associated with a neurophysiological deficit in EM that has been found in other substance use disorders.