Chronic cigarette smoking and the microstructural integrity of white matter in healthy adults: a diffusion tensor imaging study
Open accessAbstract
Results from recent studies suggest that chronic cigarette smoking is associated with increased white matter volume in the brain as determined by in vivo neuroimaging. We used diffusion tensor imaging to examine the microstructural integrity of the white matter in 10 chronic smokers and 10 nonsmokers. All individuals were healthy, without histories of medical or psychiatric illness. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and trace were measured in the genu, body, and splenium of the corpus callosum. FA provides a measure of directional versus nondirectional water diffusion, whereas trace provides a measure of nondirectional water diffusion. Lower FA and higher trace values are considered to reflect less brain integrity. Voxel-based morphometry was used to define volumes in each of these regions of the corpus callosum. Chronic smokers exhibited significantly higher FA in the body and whole corpus callosum and a strong trend for higher FA in the splenium compared with nonsmokers. FA did not differ between groups in the genu, and neither trace nor white matter volumes differed between groups in any of the regions of interest. When subdivided by Fagerström score (low vs. high), the low Fagerström group exhibited significantly higher FA in the body of the corpus callosum compared with the high Fagerström group and the nonsmokers. These results suggest that, among healthy adults, lower exposure to cigarette smoking is associated with increased microstructural integrity of the white matter compared with either no exposure or higher exposure. Additional studies are needed to further explore differences in white matter integrity between smokers and nonsmokers.
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In chronic nicotine users, heavy consumption is associated with higher FA.
“and higher FA (Paul et al., 2008)”
From Substance abuse and white matter: Findings, limitations, and future of diffusion tensor imaging research (2019) · cites this paper as Paul et al., 2008
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- Authors
- Paul, R., Grieve, S., Niaura, R., David, S., Laidlaw, D., Cohen, R., Sweet, L., Taylor, G., Clark, R., Pogun, S., & Gordon, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Missouri–St. Louis (US)
- Brown University (US)
- Flinders University (AU)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Paul, Robert
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nicotine & Tobacco Research
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2008
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 137-147
- ISSN
- 1462-2203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2276564
- OpenAlex
- W2170791275
- Cited by
- 129
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 6.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Nicotine & Tobacco Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Flinders Academic Commons (Flinders University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (K08DA014276, DA14276)
- National Cancer Institute (P50CA084718, CA84718)
- National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (R01EB004155, EB4155)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Keywords
- chronic cigarette smoking, white matter microstructural integrity, corpus callosum, fractional anisotropy, Fagerström score, tobacco smoke exposure, white matter volume, healthy adults
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain, Brain Mapping, Chronic Disease, Corpus Callosum, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Male, Middle Aged, Reference Values, Smoking, Multivariate Analysis, Anisotropy, Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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