Figure 4.
Dose-response relationship between nicotine and DMN connectivity change. In a cohort of schizophrenia and control participants, we measured whole DMN functional connectivity twice: once in the placebo condition and once with nicotine patch. Change in whole DMN functional connectivity was calculated between these two administrations (FCnicotine – FCplacebo). Dosage of nicotine patch varied between individuals based on smoking status (nicotine-dependent, n = 8, range 14–28 mg; non-nicotine dependent, n = 16, range 7–14 mg). We correlated DMN network connectivity change to administered nicotine dose across the combined sample (n = 24). We observed a linear relationship between increased nicotine dose and greater reduction in DMN connectivity across the entire sample (r = −0.50, p = 0.012).