Activation in mesolimbic and visuospatial neural circuits elicited by smoking cues: evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Due, Deborah L

Huettel, Scott A

Hall, Warren G

Rubin, David C

United States

2015-05-21T15:44:31Z

2002-06

OBJECTIVE: The authors sought to increase understanding of the brain mechanisms involved in cigarette addiction by identifying neural substrates modulated by visual smoking cues in nicotine-deprived smokers. METHOD: Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to detect brain activation after exposure to smoking-related images in a group of nicotine-deprived smokers and a nonsmoking comparison group. Subjects viewed a pseudo-random sequence of smoking images, neutral nonsmoking images, and rare targets (photographs of animals). Subjects pressed a button whenever a rare target appeared. RESULTS: In smokers, the fMRI signal was greater after exposure to smoking-related images than after exposure to neutral images in mesolimbic dopamine reward circuits known to be activated by addictive drugs (right posterior amygdala, posterior hippocampus, ventral tegmental area, and medial thalamus) as well as in areas related to visuospatial attention (bilateral prefrontal and parietal cortex and right fusiform gyrus). In nonsmokers, no significant differences in fMRI signal following exposure to smoking-related and neutral images were detected. In most regions studied, both subject groups showed greater activation following presentation of rare target images than after exposure to neutral images. CONCLUSIONS: In nicotine-deprived smokers, both reward and attention circuits were activated by exposure to smoking-related images. Smoking cues are processed like rare targets in that they activate attentional regions. These cues are also processed like addictive drugs in that they activate mesolimbic reward regions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12042183

0002-953X

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/10131

eng

American Psychiatric Association Publishing

Am J Psychiatry

10.1176/appi.ajp.159.6.954

Adult

Attention

Behavior, Addictive

Brain

Cerebral Cortex

Cues

Dopamine

Female

Humans

Limbic System

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Male

Neural Pathways

Reward

Smoking

Space Perception

Tobacco Use Disorder

Visual Perception

Activation in mesolimbic and visuospatial neural circuits elicited by smoking cues: evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Journal article

Huettel, Scott A|0000-0002-5092-4936

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12042183

954

960

6

Basic Science Departments

Center for Child and Family Policy

Center for Cognitive Neuroscience

Center for Population Health & Aging

Duke

Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Duke Population Research Center

Duke Population Research Institute

Duke Science & Society

Initiatives

Institutes and Provost's Academic Units

Neurobiology

Psychology and Neuroscience

Sanford School of Public Policy

School of Medicine

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

University Institutes and Centers

Published

159