How the brain responds to nicotine it depends on the belief of smoking on cigarette nicotine content, according to new research from the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas at Dallas (EU).
The study, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, found that smoking a cigarette, nicotine, believing that lacked nicotine, could not satisfy cravings associated with nicotine addiction. Contrary to their expectations, the researchers found that to satisfy the craving for nicotine, smokers not only had to smoke a cigarette with nicotine, but also believe that they were smoking.
“These results suggest that drugs have an effect on a person, he or she must believe that the drug is present,” says Xiaosi Gu, assistant professor of the School of Brain Science and Behavior and lead author of the study in the news MedicalXpress collected by the website of the university.
The scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to capture the neural activity in the insular cortex, a brain region that plays a role in various bodily functions such as perception and self-awareness. The insular cortex is also associated with craving and addiction to drugs, says Gu.
Twenty-four chronic smokers, nicotine addicts participated in the double-blind study. Over four visits, participants were given nicotine cigarette twice and twice a placebo. With each type of cigarette, they once told the truth about what they contained and once the opposite.
“We examined the impact of beliefs about cravings before and after smoking, while we measured neuronal activity,” says Gu, who also serves as head of the Computational Psychiatry Unit at the Center for Brain Health.
four options
At each visit, participants underwent fMRI scanning and given a cigarette, but in a different situation each analyzed:
· Considers that the cigarette contains nicotine, but receives a placebo.
· Considers that the cigarette has nicotine but receives a cigarette with nicotine.
· Considers that the cigarette contains nicotine and nicotine receives.
· Considers that the cigarette does not contain nicotine and receives the placebo.
After smoking the cigarette provided, participants completed a learning task with reward while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging, and rated their levels of anxiety before smoking a cigarette and after the task.
MRIs showed that neural activity correlated significantly with both anxiety as learning signals when participants smoked a cigarette, nicotine and believed their nicotine content was authentic. However, smoking nicotine thinking it was a placebo did not produce the same brain signals, nor smoke a cigarette without nicotine, although they were told that if he did.
The results of this study support previous findings on that beliefs can alter the effects of a drug on desire, providing information on possible avenues for new methods of treatment of addiction.
