Smoking, nicotine and visual plasticity: does what you know, tell you what you can see?

Nicotine exposure alters activity-dependent synaptic plasticity processes. Effects on learning and memory outcomes, and the synaptic changes that underlie them, are well-documented. Parallels in hippocampal and visual system pharmacology suggest that nicotine has the potential to alter activity-dependent structural organization in visual areas. Such alterations may contribute to deficits in visual performance reported in smoking exposed individuals.