MRI scans have revealed that the brains of people who have successfully kicked the smoking habit may be wired differently than those who have tried and failed to do so, according to new research published in a recent edition of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.
In their study, lead author Dr. Merideth Addicott and senior author Dr. Joseph McClernon, both members of the faculty at Duke University discovered greater connectivity in certain parts of the brain in people who quit smoking – specifically, in the insula, which governs cravings and urges.
They analyzed the brain activity of 85 people one month before those individuals attempted to stop smoking, and then tracked their progress over the course of 10 weeks. All of the participants were able to quit to begin with, while 41 eventually relapsed. By studying the MRI scans of the 44 smokers who successfully kicked the habit, they found the difference in activity.
Stop lighting up for good?
They found that the people who quit successfully had better coordinated activity or synchrony between the insula, a large area in the cerebral cortex, and the somatosensory cortex, the part of the brain that is central to our sense of touch and motor control. In short, the insula was sending signals to the brain governing whether or not the individual should smoke a cigarette.
Previous smoking cessation studies have looked at the insula, and shown that this region of the brain is active whenever a smoker is craving a cigarette, Dr. McClernon explained. Those studies have found that smokers who suffer damage to their insula appear to suddenly lose interest in lighting up a cigarette, leading experts to view it as a potential intervention target.
However, as Dr. McClernon pointed out, there has been uncertainty over how to modulate this part of the brain’s activity, and who would benefit from such treatments. He said that their research provides new evidence that targeting the connection between the insula and the somatosensory cortex could potentially help smokers stop lighting up for good.
“We have provided a blueprint,” he concluded. “If we can increase connectivity in smokers to look more like those who quit successfully, that would be a place to start. We also need more research to understand what it is exactly about greater connectivity between these regions that increases the odds of success.”
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