Posted On : Jul 12 , 2024
Posted By : CureSureMedico Team
A way to end smoking addiction could be on the horizon after scientists discovered what makes the brain become addicted to nicotine. Smoking is the single biggest cause of cancer in the UK and is responsible for more than a quarter of all cancer deaths. Over 800 MRIs from people scanned at ages 14, 19, and 24 were used to determine if there are any effects of smoking. The research discovered that smokers were more likely to have a smaller area in their frontal lobe—the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain has been associated with rule-breaking, and the study demonstrates that most probably people born with a smaller lobe are most likely rule-breaking and a renegade.
However, the statistics also have shown that smoking puts the right-hand side of the same region of the brain at risk. This is the part of the brain that's associated with willpower and pleasure. It's also part of the trigger system, and images show that in smokers, it decreases in size. The lead author of the study, Professor Barbara Sahakian from the University of Cambridge, told The Telegraph: "Our findings also shed new insight on the mechanisms for cigarette smoking addiction. There was a reduction in brain grey matter volume in the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex which likely causes impulsive behavior and rule breaking that leads to the initiation of cigarette smoking.". "Cigarette smoking leads to reductions in brain grey matter volume in the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which is associated with sensation seeking and pleasurable experiences that reinforce and maintain future cigarette smoking. This eventually leads to addiction." It was published in Nature Communications and researched all changes in the brain that occur after the subjects initiate smoking in order to come up with the association of nicotine to these significant ones.
E-cigarette Dependency
The researchers feel that it may be via vaping that the changes in the brain might also be triggered. "The nicotine effect we found with smoking cigarettes may also apply to e-cigarettes," Prof Sahakian said to The Telegraph. "Both e-cigarettes and regular cigarettes contain nicotine. Nicotine is highly addictive.". "These are the vaping adolescents who are potentially going to get cigarette addicted."
The researchers believe that they have identified a "neurological mechanism" that underlies the process of initiation into smoking and maintenance of its compulsive level. The team further said, now that they know where and how nicotine is warping the brain, it might be possible to treat addiction. "The brain-sparing of such therapies as psychotropic drugs could halt the brain shrinking or preserve normal functioning of the frontal lobe," they wrote in their paper. Targeting this brain region with brain-zapping technology could even act as a "potential treatment for addiction", the team added.
In fact, the regions of the brain involved in smoking addiction have implications even beyond just nicotine dependence. For example, the same can have an impact on the brain and hence behavior in the case of surgical intervention like brain tumor resections or liver resections. A further benefit that comes with regards to changes in the brain as a result of smoking is that the same can be put into use to understand the outcomes of surgery in processes such as hysterectomy, colectomy, and prostatectomy. Even procedures like thoracotomy, tonsillectomy, or fracture repair, which although seemingly unrelated, will none the less realize benefits from understanding the brains response to various stimulus and recovery processes.
