It is speculated that nicotine may partially remediate
attentional and sensory processing deficits related to
schizophrenia (Dalack & Meador-Woodruff 1996;
Leonard et al. 1996; Ziedonis & George 1997). Adler et al.
(1993) compared changes in auditory sensory gating in
response to smoking cigarettes in smokers without psychiatric
illness and schizophrenic smokers. The schizophrenic
patients had marked, albeit brief, improvement in P50
auditory gating immediately following smoking, while P50
gating for the other smokers was slightly impaired. Adler
et al. concluded that cigarette smoking could transiently
normalize the impairment of auditory sensory gating in
schizophrenic patients. The findings of the present study
are consistent with evidence from animal neurophysiological
studies that implicate nicotinic cholinergic input
from the medial septal nucleus in sensory gating.