The gray matter of two key brain regions is reduced in people who are more likely to start smoking in their teens. This may be because these areas play an important role in inhibition and addiction.
“Smoking may be the most addictive habit in the world and is a major cause of mortality among adults,” The following is a list of words that begin with the word “you”Trevor Robbins, a psychologist at Cambridge University.
The most common time for the initiation of smoking to take place is during adolescence. It would be possible to save millions of lives if we could detect the increased likelihood of smoking.
The team, led by Tianye Jia of Fudan University Bioinformatician and Shitong Xiang cognitive neuroscientist, compared the results. MRIOver 800 brain scans were collected over time from people from the UK and Germany. These volunteers also filled out questionnaires regarding personality traits.
The researchers compared the smokers with non-smokers at age 14, and then again with those same patients in their twenties and thirties.
Images showed that people who began smoking before the age 14 had less gray tissue in the left. The ventromedial prefrontal cortexThe part of the human brain that is involved in emotion regulation, decision making, and self control.
The opposite part (on the left) of this brain region, which is also found in the smokers group, was also reduced compared to the non-smokers. This side ventromedial prefrontal cortex has been associated with pleasure.
“The ventromedial frontal cortex is an important region for dopamine in the brain, which is a pleasure chemical.” explains Cambridge psychiatrist Barbara Sahakian. Dopamine is also believed to influence self-control.
The results of the questionnaires can provide some insight into why.
Both questionnaires measure different behaviors, but both examine the pursuit for thrilling experiences. Describe Robbins. “The novelty-seeking test includes items that measure impulsiveness or rule-breaking, while the sensation-seeking scale concentrates on pleasurable experience.”
The ventromedial cortex of participants who showed a tendency toward sensation seeking was more likely to show reduced brain tissue on the right. More novelty seeking was associated to less gray matter in the left. This leads to a decrease in inhibitions, and an increase in risk-taking behaviors. These behaviors are associated with increased smoking among teenagers.
Smokers then experience excessive gray matter loss in the right frontal brain lobes. This is linked with behaviors that reinforce substance abuse.” The following is a list of words that begin with the word “you” Jia – pressing those sensation-seeking pleasure button. “This could be a causal explanation of how smoking starts in youth and turns into addiction.”
A second subgroup of the population studied were those who started smoking before age 19. The gray matter of the left prefrontal cortex was also reduced in smokers at 14, but the right side was similar to that of non-smokers.
The reduced matter of the left frontal brain lobe could be a biomarker for those with addiction tendencies.
Jia, Jia’s colleagues and others suggest that providing non-drug incentives at an early stage in substance use can help prevent the progression to substance dependence. Please see below for a list of suggested words and phrases.
They want to know if the findings are also true for vaping.
One in five adult deathsSmoking is the leading cause of cancer in the US. It could save lives if you know who is most likely to start smoking before others.
The research was published by Nature Communications.
