The investigators' aim is to test the prediction that sweet taste perception enhances the ability of nicotine to induce neural plastic changes in brain reward circuits to increase the saliency, liking and brain reactivity to the sight and vaporized flavor of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes).
Alternative tobacco products are becoming increasingly available in the US market and are promoted as potentially less deleterious compared to cigarettes. These products are increasing in usage as either a substitution for cigarette smoking or in addition to smoking. One particular appeal is that they often combine nicotine with sweet taste and flavors, which are themselves reinforcing. The primary goal of this project is to determine if sweet taste can potentiate the reinforcing properties of nicotine. Similar to nicotine, cues predicting the availability of carbohydrates can stimulate intake, even in the absence of hunger. The investigators have developed a novel flavor-nutrient conditioning paradigm to study the reinforcing properties of carbohydrates. Novel flavors are paired with 0 or 113 kcal carbohydrate and increases in flavor-cue reactivity (change in liking and brain response) when later sampled in the absence of the carbohydrate provide a measure of the reinforcing potency. For smokers, the aroma of tobacco is a potent cue that can promote smoking behavior. Using a modified version of our conditioning paradigm, our specific aim is to test the prediction that sweet taste perception enhances the ability of nicotine to induce neural plastic changes in brain reward circuits to increase the saliency, liking and brain reactivity to the sight and vaporized flavor of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). Participants will smoke e-cigarettes that contain nicotine and an unsweetened vaporized flavor, nicotine and a sweet vaporized flavor or only a sweet vaporized flavor (no nicotine). The investigators predict that response in the nucleus accumbens and hypothalamus to the sight and vaporized flavor of the e-cigarette that was paired with nicotine and sweet taste will be greater than the responses to the sight and vaporized flavors associated with the other e-cigarettes. The investigators further predict that liking and wanting will increase more for the sight and vaporized flavor associated with both nicotine and sweet taste. This finding would provide strong evidence that sweet taste potentiates the reinforcement potency of nicotine and could therefore promote use.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
15
maltol added as sweetener to e-cigarette with flavor
12 mg of nicotine added to e-cigarette with flavor
12 mg nicotine and maltol (sweetener) added to e-cigarette with flavor
The John B Pierce Laboratory
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Change from Baseline on Rating: Liking
At baseline and 2 days post exposure, subjects will rate 'liking' using the general Labeled Hedonic Scale (LHS). The LHS is a vertical line scale with quasi-logarithmic spaced, with the label 'most imaginable dislike' in the bottom to 'most imaginable like' in the top, with the label 'neutral' in the middle (recoded to range of -100 to +100).
Time frame: 2 days
percent signal change of nucleus accumbens from fMRI
brain response in nucleus accumbens and hypothalamus (in percent signal
Time frame: on average 2 weeks
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flavored e-cigarette stand alone without added nicotine and maltol (sweetener)