Abstract

GONZALEZ-RIVERA, Ivette; ZAMORA-AREVALO, Óscar; PAZ-TREJO, Diana Berenice  and  SANCHEZ-CASTILLO, Hugo. Nicotine Effect on a Model of Hyperactivation of the Dopaminergic System using a Temporal Bisection Task: Towards a Model in Schizophrenia. Acta de investigación psicol [online]. 2016, vol.6, n.1, pp.2262-2276. ISSN 2007-4719.  https://doi.org/10.1016/s2007-4719(16)30048-5.

Schizophrenia is a disorder that involves multiple biochemical abnormalities. Patients with schizophrenia have a high prevalence of smoking, which has been linked with the fact that nicotine has significant interactions with dopamine, theoretically being able to reduce some of the positive, negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, there is controversy about the role of nicotine on symptoms of patients with schizophrenia who smoke. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of nicotine administration in a model of hyperactivation of the dopaminergic system using a temporal bisection task. The results suggest a recovery of cognitive skills, but the procognitive effect of nicotine depends on a variety of factors, including the underlying neural systems of the tasks and its interaction with other drugs and systems. It is proposed that the evaluation of the temporal processing of information could be a tool in the understanding and assessment of cognitive deficits of schizophrenia.

Keywords : Schizophrenia; Nicotine; Dopaminergic System; Timing; Cognition.