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Converging evidence from several theories of the development of incentive-sensitization to smoking-related environmental stimuli suggests that the ventral striatum plays an important role in the processing of smoking-related cue reactivity.Twenty-six healthy right-handed volunteers (14 smokers and 12 nonsmoking controls) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which neutral and smoking-related images were presented. Region of interest analyses were performed within the ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens (VS/NAc) for the contrast between smoking-related (SR) and nonsmoking related neutral (N) cues.Group activation for SR versus N cues was observed in smokers but not in nonsmokers in medial orbitofrontal cortex, superior frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex, and posterior fusiform gyrus using whole-brain corrected Z thresholds and in the ventral VS/NAc using uncorrected Z-statistics (smokers Z = 3.2). Region of interest analysis of signal change within ventral VS/NAc demonstrated significantly greater activation to SR versus N cues in smokers than controls.This is the first demonstration of greater VS/NAc activation in addicted smokers than nonsmokers presented with smoking-related cues using fMRI. Smokers, but not controls, demonstrated activation to SR versus N cues in a distributed reward signaling network consistent with cue reactivity studies of other drugs of abuse.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.04.028

Type

Journal article

Journal

Biological psychiatry

Publication Date

09/2005

Volume

58

Pages

488 - 494

Addresses

Cancer Research United Kingdom General Practice Research Group, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Infirmary, UK. Sean_David@Brown.Edu

Keywords

Basal Ganglia, Nucleus Accumbens, Humans, Tobacco Use Disorder, Oxygen, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Brain Mapping, Cues, Visual Perception, History, 21st Century, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Adult, Female, Male