The belief effect of nicotine strength can alter brain response and task performance, even when the actual nicotine dose is the same.

“the belief effect isn't just changing what one subjectively experiences oh this is the effect of high nicotine or low nicotine it actually is changing the way that the brain responds to the belief and that to me is absolutely wild”

“moreover people who were told that they received a high concentration of nicotine performed better than either the individuals who were told they received a medium or small concentration of nicotine but as I mentioned before everyone received the same concentration of nicotine”

“for the group that was told that they received a medium concentration of nicotine they performed better on a cognitive task than did the people who were told they received a smaller concentration of nicotine”

“in other words everyone gets the same dose either zero or moderate but depending on what you're told your performance changes accordingly and that's cool but what's really cool about the study is they actually recorded from brain centers of these individuals and the levels of activity in particular areas of the brain that are relevant for cognition changed according to what the people believe”