Phenotypic Markers for Smoking Cessation: Impulsive Choice and Impulsive Action This application addresses broad Challenge Area (01): Behavior, Behavioral Change, and Prevention and specific high-priority Challenge Topic 01-AA-101 Identifying Phenotypic Markers for Positive Behavior Change. The proposed project will gather new information about temporal growth patterns in two phenotypic markers of behavior change among smokers engaged in an attempt to quit smoking with individual smoking cessation counseling and nicotine lozenge treatment. The project will also generate real time data about the associations between alcohol use and measures of impulsive choice and action in individuals attempting to stop smoking. Delay discounting is a devaluing of delayed rewards that has been documented in smokers, particularly during acute periods of withdrawal. Delay discounting has important but previously unexplored implications for momentary decisions that smokers attempting to quit must make regarding the value of abstaining now, despite withdrawal discomfort and powerful cravings, to reap health benefits years later. The proposed project will examine day-to-day fluctuations in delay discounting assessed daily by palmtop computer in the 7 days preceding a quit attempt and the first 21 days of a quit attempt and will explore relations between delay discounting and subsequent abstinence. Subjects will also complete a standard, laboratory-based delay discounting task three times in the study (one week pre-quit, on the target quit day, and 3 weeks post-quit) which will be assessed as predictors of later abstinence. Variables that may account for changes in delay discounting over time, such as alcohol use, affective states, access to cigarettes, or perceived certainty of health benefits of quitting, will be examined as well. In addition to the delay discounting measure of impulsive choice, the proposed project will also administer a task assessing impulsive action, Go-no go tasks require that individuals be able to inhibit prepotent responses, an ability with clear relevance for smoking cessation. Subjects are instructed to tap a key when a go stimulus appears and to withhold the response when the signal is not present. To date, real-time data regarding impulsive action have not been collected during the course of a quit attempt. This project will generate new information about changes in impulsive action and factors associated with such changes (e.g., alcohol use, craving) during an attempt to inhibit over-learned smoking behavior. The within-subjects longitudinal design of the proposed project will generate new knowledge about change in impulsive choice and impulsive action, and the associations between these constructs over time, during an assisted behavior change attempt. The project will also generate new information about relations between real-time behavioral measures of impulsivity and affective states, environmental contexts, behaviors (including alcohol use) assessed in real time, and subsequent abstinence. The proposed research may help identify cognitive markers of successful change or risk that could be targeted in future interventions. The proposed research will combine addiction research with cognitive psychology and behavioral economics to fill an important gap in our understanding about dynamic changes in decisions and behaviors that may influence smoking behavior. Tracking preference for immediate versus delayed rewards and impulsive action during an attempt to quit smoking and may help us identify markers of successful cessation with implications for other substances of abuse, including alcohol.
The proposed research will combine addiction research with cognitive psychology and behavioral economics to fill an important gap in our understanding about dynamic changes in decisions and behaviors that may influence smoking behavior. Tracking preference for immediate versus delayed rewards and impulsive action during an attempt to quit smoking and may help us identify markers of successful cessation with implications for other substances of abuse, including alcohol.
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