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Alcohol has it’s good and bad sides and can be confusing as is whether it is healthy or not, depending also on the amount, and it becomes even more messy when looking at it in conjunction with nicotine. While there is no clear danger of mixing both, the impacts on cognition is not as synergistic as caffeine for example even by looking at the positive studies alone. In fact about 80% of the studies we’ve looked put alcohol in a dark light. Nonetheless let’s take a look at a few of them. If you are a fan of combining both,...

A Single Dose of Nicotine Enhances Reward Responsiveness in Nonsmokers: Implications for Development of Dependence. The article above does an excellent job at describing nicotine addiction and why once you start, you either can’t stop or is extremely difficult. Nicotine is addictive, this is nothing new, but this article goes to show why it becomes so addictive so fast. “Tobacco smoking, driven by the addictive properties of nicotine, is the most prevalent preventable cause of death in the Western World. Accumulated evidence suggests that nicotine may increase appetitive responding for non-drug incentives in the environment. “Results: Despite expected adverse effects...

​Nicotine effects on alertness and spatial attention in non-smokers Nicotine improves covert orienting of spatial attention, but enhanced alertness may also play a role. The present study explored nicotine effects on measures of spatial attention and alertness in non-smokers. Nicotine was delivered to 17 non-smokers (data from 12 subjects were analyzed) by a 7-mg transdermal patch (one patch in a low-nicotine condition; two patches in a high-nicotine condition). We examined nicotine’s effects on spatial attention using a covert orienting task with central, predictive cue stimuli. Nicotine effects on alertness were examined with EEG and subjective questionnaires. Blood was drawn and...