Weak Brain Connection Won't Let You Stop Smoking!
NEW YORK: Despite umpteen resolutions that you are going to quit smoking, why do you succumb the very next day to that uncontrollable craving to light another one? Blame it on the weakened brain connections that are tied to self-control over cigarette cravings. A new brain imaging study from scientists at University of Pennsylvania and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) shows how smokers suffering from nicotine withdrawal may have more trouble shifting from a key brain network.
Moving from default mode, when people are in a so-called 'introspective' state, into a control network that could help exert more conscious, self-control over cravings and to focus on quitting for good has now been understood. "The findings help validate a neurobiological basis behind why so many people trying to quit end up relapsing and may lead to new ways to identify smokers at high risk for relapse who need more intensive smoking cessation therapy," explained Caryn Lerman, deputy director of Penn's Abramson Cancer Centre. The researchers found that smokers who abstained from cigarettes showed weakened inter-connectivity between certain large-scale networks in their brains-the default mode network, the executive control network, and the salience network. This weakened connectivity reduces smokers' ability to shift into or maintain greater influence from the executive control network which may ultimately help maintain their quitting attempt.
Read More: Obese Teenage Girls Are Lower Academic Achievers: Study
