Nicotine coaxes the brain
Researchers point out that environmental signals stimulate craving.
Researchers found that nicotine, the addictive component in cigarettes, “fool” the brain and memory to create associations between environmental cues and smoking behavior. This may explain why former smokers miss when lighting a cigarette in a bar or after eating.
The findings of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine published in the September 10 edition of the journal Neuron.
“Our brain normally establishes these associations between things that give support to our existence and environmental signals so that we have behaviors that lead us to have successful lives. The brain sends a signal of reward when we act in a way that contributes to our welfare “said co-author, Dr. John A. Dani, professor of neuroscience at BCM, in a press release from the university. “However, nicotine usurps this subconscious learning process in the brain, so we started to behave as if smoking was a positive action.”
Dani said that environmental events associated with smoking can be converted into tracks that stimulate craving. This information could include alcohol, a meal with friends or even the way home from work.
Dani and Dr. Jianrong Tang, instructor of neuroscience at BCM and co-author of the report, recorded the brain activity of rats during exposure to nicotine.
The rats were allowed to wander through a device that had two compartments. In a magazine, receiving nicotine. And on the other, obtained a saline solution. The researchers recorded the amount of time that mice spent in each compartment and brain activity in the hippocampus, a brain area that creates the reports.
“The change in brain activity was amazing,” said Dani. “Compared with injections of saline, nicotine strengthened neural connections, sometimes up to 200 percent. The strengthening of these connections emphasizes the formation of new memories.”
Dani said that understanding the mechanisms that create memory could have implications for future research and treatment of memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and in disorders of dopamine signaling, such as Parkinson’s disease.