Does Smoking Have Cognitive Benefits?

A new study refutes the notion that nicotine is a performance-enhancer: 

“Nicotine-affected subjects answer faster than non-nicotine affected subjects, so nicotine has long been regarded as a performance-enhancing substance,” [Signe Vangkilde] says. “But I wanted to examine what happens when you omit motor skills – which relate only to how quickly test subjects answer and not how well.” In other words, she wanted to determine whether the performance of nicotine-affected subjects was faster and better, or faster and worse. Her findings indicate the latter.