Part of the brain forms circuits that can promote smoking addiction

To Claire Wilson

After researchers analyzed smokers who quickly lost their cravings for nicotine after a brain injury, the brain circuits involved in addiction were identified.

This finding says it may lead to the use of brain stimulators to help people quit tobacco, alcohol and other drugs. Juho Youza At the University of Turku, Finland.

One such device that uses a technology called Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)Is approved to help people quit smoking in the United States. It involves going to a clinic where doctors hold a small device over their head that temporarily boosts the activity of parts of the brain. However, it is unclear how it works and it is not widely used.

To better understand the areas of the brain involved in addiction, Joutsa’s team suddenly lost the desire to smoke after a stroke, which damages a small part of the brain, or damages the brain from the body. We examined the brain scans of 34 people. Injury. “It’s a significant change in behavior,” says Joutsa. “They have completely lost their urge to smoke.”

Researchers compared these brain scans with scans of 69 smokers who continued their habits after a brain injury.

People who lost the urge to smoke damaged one of the three areas (dorsal shingles, the lateral prefrontal cortex or island), or the other area of ​​the brain that had strong connections to the three areas. .. This should be seen as a circuit of addiction, Joutsa says.

However, smokers did not damage the medial prefrontal cortex, which is already known to inhibit activity in the other three brain regions. The medial prefrontal cortex, located in the center of the forehead, is considered to be the fourth important area of ​​this circuit. Targeting it through TMS can help people overcome their addictions, Joutsa says.

Looking at another group of 186 people with brain injuries, the team found that damage to this circuit was also associated with a reduced likelihood of alcoholism.Other doctors have previously reported the sudden loss of three individuals with brain damage in this circuit. Addiction to either opioids and alcohol, multiple illicit drugs, or alcohol and nicotine..

TMS has already been used to help some people quit smoking, but new discoveries may suggest ways to increase their effectiveness, he says. Nick Davis At Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. “This is very powerful, which means that you can use techniques such as magnetic and electrical stimulation to find areas that can increase or decrease brain activity.”

Journal reference: Nature medicine, DOI: 10.1038 / s41591-022-01834-y

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