Chewing tobacco impairs people’s ability to carry out complex manual tasks with precision,
according to Jose Contreras-Vidal of the University of Maryland in College Park. People who smoke
tobacco may also suffer from a similar impairment.
Contreras-Vidal and his colleagues asked 10 tobacco chewers and 10 controls to perform
complex visuomotor tasks. In each case, they had to move a cursor as quckly as possible towards
a target on a computer screen.
The tobacco chewers had more trouble doing so, and their movements were more jerky and slow
(Nicotine & Tobacco Research, vol.1, p 219). But after a day of abstinence they performed normally.
Nicotine probably boosts levels of dopamine – a neurotransmitter involved in movement _ beyond the
optimum, says Contreras-Vidal. “I would expect the same for cigarettes,” he says.
