Using an colored smoke e cigarette could help to maintain people’s memory while they are trying to give up smoking, new research suggests.

People who attempt to quit without using a nicotine substitute may suffer a dip in their working memory levels while their body adjusts to reduced amounts of the chemical. But a new study presented at the annual conference of the British Psychological Society suggests that battery-operated ’e-cigarettes’ that enable quitters to inhale nicotine can reduce this effect.

Researchers at the University of East London studied 85 smokers, all of whom were given e cigs containing nicotine or a placebo (dummy treatment). Participants were allowed to use the e-cigarettes as much as they liked for five minutes and 60 of them then completed a working memory task.

Analysis revealed that people whose ecigarette contained nicotine showed better working memory than those whose devices were nicotine-free. Dr Lynne Dawkins, who conducted the study, said: ’We found that e-cigarettes with nicotine help maintain working memory in smokers who have not smoked for an hour or two.’However, the campaign group does not endorse any particular products.