Neuroimaging Study Identifies ‘Brain Signature' for Cigarette Cravings

A new brain imaging study revealed that cigarette cravings in smokers who are deprived of nicotine are linked with increased activation in specific regions of the brain.

Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn; Philadelphia, PA, USA) utilized a novel method of measuring brain blood flow developed by John Detre, M.D., associate professor of neurology at Penn. This study is the first to show how abstinence from nicotine produces brain activation patterns that relate to urges to smoke. The findings, published in the December 19, 2007, issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, provides insights into understanding smoking urges, a major risk factor for relapse, at the brain level.

According to Caryn Lerman, Ph.D., director of the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center and senior author of the study, and colleagues John Detre, M.D., and Ze Wang, Ph.D., cravings are a characteristic of drug dependence, including nicotine dependence. "There have been several brain imaging studies showing how subjects respond to visual, smoking-related cues, such as a picture of a cigarette or of someone smoking,” said Dr. Lerman. "However, less is known about the neural basis of urges that arise naturally as a result of nicotine deprivation. This study was designed help fill this research gap.”

This joint research effort between Penn's Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center and the Center for Functional Neuroimaging used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) arterial spin labeled (ASL) technology. ASL, a non-invasive technique for the measurement of cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the brain, was used to compare resting CBF across two scanning sessions, which varied by length of periods of abstinence from smoking.

Fifteen regular smokers were included in the study. Each participant was scanned in a resting state on two separate occasions: participants smoked a cigarette within one hour of the one scan, and abstained from smoking overnight for the other scan.

These findings, according to the researchers, indicate that abstinence-induced, unprovoked cravings to smoke are associated with increased activation in brain regions important in attention, behavioral control, memory, and reward. "The craving assessments used in our study predict relapse in smoking cessation treatment,” said Dr. Lerman. "If validated in larger studies, these results may have important clinical implications. For example, perfusion MRI may aid in the identification of smokers at increased risk for relapse who may require more intensive therapy.”


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