Scientists discover in the brain a solution to treat smoking addiction
Researchers mapped an addiction-related brain network by studying long-term smokers who quit suddenly after developing brain lesions.
The authors of the study hope that these results will help focus future addiction treatments on a group of substances.
The researchers based their quest to determine the part responsible for addiction in the brain, on the study of a sample of 129 patients, 60% of whom were males, with an average age of 56 years, who smoked daily and had brain lesions.
More than half of them continued to smoke normally after the appearance of brain lesions, while a quarter of them stopped smoking immediately without difficulty, even reporting that they did not feel a "strong desire" for it, according to the study.
The researchers observed that brain lesions in those who stopped smoking are present in several areas of the brain, but all of them are connected to a specific network.
The scientists discovered that the lesion that may be behind someone's addiction withdrawal is likely to affect parts of the brain such as the dorsolateral anterior cingulate cortex, lateral prefrontal cortex, and insular cortex, but not the medial prefrontal cortex.
The researchers were keen to confirm their findings, so they studied 186 patients with brain lesions and assessed them for alcohol risks.
The researchers found that the addiction-related brain network lesions that they observed in smokers also reduce the risk of alcohol addiction, which means that there is a common network of addiction through these substances.
"The identified network provides a testable target for treatment attempts," said study author Juho Jootsa, a neurologist at the University of Turku, Finland.
"Some of the network's axons were located in the cerebral cortex and could be targeted even with non-invasive neuromodulation techniques," he told AFP.
Neuromodulation includes all techniques used to modify the activity of the central, peripheral, or autonomic nervous system.
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