Stress-Potentiated Memory Updating as a Novel Intervention for Non-Treatment Seeking Smokers

Abstract

Interventions to disrupt memory reconsolidation have held promise for the treatment of stress- and anxiety-related disorders. In the present study, we tested whether an intervention based on these principles, called memory updating, could be adapted for reward-seeking behaviors. Non-treatment seeking tobacco smokers were exposed to smoking cues and/or stress, two stimuli known to trigger smoking. It was predicted that exposure to a stress task would enhance the cues’ motivational salience and yield greater susceptibility to the memory updating procedure.