An fMRI Study of Nicotine-Deprived Smokers' Reactivity to Smoking Cues during Novel/Exciting Activity |
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Authors: | Xiaomeng Xu Arthur Aron J Lee Westmaas Jin Wang Lawrence H Sweet |
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Institution: | 1. Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho, United States of America.; 2. Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America.; 3. American Cancer Society, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.; 4. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.; 5. University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, United States of America, and Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America.; University of Pennsylvania, United States of America, |
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Abstract: | Engaging in novel/exciting (“self-expanding”) activities activates the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, a brain reward pathway also associated with the rewarding effects of nicotine. This suggests that self-expanding activities can potentially substitute for the reward from nicotine. We tested this model among nicotine-deprived smokers who, during fMRI scanning, played a series of two-player cooperative games with a relationship partner. Games were randomized in a 2 (self-expanding vs. not) x 2 (cigarette cue present vs. absent) design. Self-expansion conditions yielded significantly greater activation in a reward region (caudate) than did non-self-expansion conditions. Moreover, when exposed to smoking cues during the self-expanding versus the non-self-expanding cooperative games, smokers showed less activation in a cigarette cue-reactivity region, a priori defined temporo-parietal junction (TPJ)] from a recent meta-analysis of cue-reactivity. In smoking cue conditions, increases in excitement associated with the self-expanding condition (versus the non-self-expanding condition) were also negatively correlated with TPJ activation. These results support the idea that a self-expanding activity promoting reward activation attenuates cigarette cue-reactivity among nicotine-deprived smokers. Future research could focus on the parameters of self-expanding activities that produce this effect, as well as test the utility of self-expansion in clinical interventions for smoking cessation. |
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