Nicotine boosts attention, precision, motor skills, speed and memory
In 2010 the U.S. government published a groundbreaking meta-analysis, which summarizes the last 40 years of knowledge about tobacco and nicotine effects on the brain. The analysis was conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, headed by researcher Stephen Heishman: Meta-analysis of the acute effects of nicotine and smoking on human performance. Abstract: (3) - full text (4).
The results in Heishman's analysis gives the clear impression that it could turn out to be a very bad idea to try to "eradicate" tobacco. For nicotine has positive impacts in the areas of motor skills, attention, focus, speed and memory - and the effect is significant, the researchers say: The results are not due to statistical chance.
Heishman's team examined all 256 published non-medicinal nicotine tests carried out since 1994 when they conducted a similar study. The tests measured both the effect of cigarettes on smokers - and the effect of non-smoking nicotine on non-smokers.
- 48 of the best quality trials were selected for the meta-analysis following strict scientific criteria: They had to be placebo controlled - with nicotine-free patches and nicotine-free cigarettes - and double blinded, so no subjects knew whether they had received nicotine or not.
Furthermore only trials in which none of the smokers were craving tobacco were used. Thus Heishman excluded the risk that smokers may have performed unusually well because of their relief from the withdrawal effect.
The analysis paints a picture of nicotine as an effective and fast acting drug, which improves the brain's performance in work situations - a genuine "work-drug". Unlike drugs such as alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and heroin, which are not useful during work.
So apart from the health hazards of cigarettes, it seems the only drawback of nicotine is the addictive effect, although this is still controversial among scientists, and should not be confused with dependence on narcotics. And although pure nicotine is poisonous in large doses, there is no evidence of health risks from nicotine in the amounts in which it is consumed using tobacco.
Why are many scientists, athletes and artists smokers?
- The positive effect on the brain may explain why many of history's greatest scientists have been avid smokers - for example Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein, both of whom praised the effect of tobacco on their scientific thinking.
Furthermore, it is known that many athletes, creative people, stage performers, writers, musicians and artists through time have been smokers. The nicotine in cigarettes appears to have been particularly important for people who need to produce something unique or competitive in their work.
- Top footballers, in particular, have often surprised the media when it emerged that they were avid smokers, while they were at the peak of their careers. For example, the puritanical British media people couldn't imagine that a top player like Wayne Rooney would be able to deliver top performances for his team, when they revealed it as a scandal, that Rooney is a smoker (5).
- The truth is however, that some of the world's most creative stars - like Zinedine Zidane, Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov and many other players from the highest levels of football - were avid smokers while they were at the top of their careers - including the Danish 80's hero, Preben Elkjaer.
Cigarettes have also always been an indispensable part of soldiers' field rations, and still are. A war cannot be won without cigarettes, soldiers said (6) - so in 2009 the Pentagon had to drop a proposal to ban smoking in the U.S. Army after very strong protests from soldiers and veterans (7).
According to Stephen Heishman's analysis, there is a very good reason why competitive people smoke. This is because of the nicotine boost to the brain - nicotine helps them produce better performances.
The effects also suggest an answer to the puzzle of why people start smoking and continue on a permanent basis - and the proof comes paradoxically from the results of the effect of nicotine on non-smokers, who also perform better when they get nicotine gum. Heishman writes:
"... [The fact that] the results are also found among non-smokers is an indirect evidence that nicotine performance enhancing effects may be the reason why people start smoking."

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