(Ettinger et al., 2009). Nicotinic stimulation with varenicline, a modestly efficacious pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation, increases activity in core TPN nodes (i.e., lateral and posterior-medial PFC) during demanding working memory performance following smoking abstinence (Loughead et al., 2011). Thus, we suggest acute nicotine withdrawal may be a particularly relevant endogenous stimulus necessitating further processing resources in the service of returning the individual to a euthymic, homeostatic set point, but at the expense of reduced processing efficiency for exogenous stimuli.
