Adolescent smokers show decreased brain responses to pleasurable food images compared with nonsmokers
Open accessAbstract
INTRODUCTION: Nicotine acts on the mesocorticolimbic circuits of the brain leading to the release of dopamine. Repeated elevations of dopamine in the brain may cause smokers to become less sensitive to "natural reinforcers." To test the theory that adolescents with low nicotine exposure may already have decreased activation when exposed to a natural reinforcer, we looked at the effect of visual cues representing "pleasurable" food on light adolescent smokers compared with nonsmokers. METHODS: Twelve adolescent light smokers (aged 13-17 years, smoked 1-5 cigarettes/day) and 12 nonsmokers (aged 13-17 years, never smoked a cigarette) from the San Francisco Bay Area underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. During scanning, they viewed blocks of photographic images representing pleasurable foods (sweet, high fat, and salty foods) and control cues. RESULTS: Smokers reported smoking a mean of 3.6 cigarettes/day. There was no difference in body mass index between groups (24.1 vs. 24.0, respectively, p = .99). Food images elicited greater activations in nonsmokers in multiple areas including the insula (T = 4.38, p < .001), inferior frontal region (T = 5.12, p < .001), and rolandic operculum (T = 6.18, p < .001). There were no regions where smokers demonstrated greater blood oxygenation level-dependent activations compared with nonsmokers when viewing food versus neutral images. CONCLUSIONS: The finding of decreased activation to pleasurable food among adolescent light smokers supports the theory that these adolescents are displaying decreased sensitivity to at least one natural reinforcer. This also supports the theory that nicotine may affect the brain early in the trajectory of smoking, thus underscoring the need for early intervention among adolescent smokers.
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Adolescents who smoke ≤5 cigarettes per day show attenuated responses to pleasurable food images relative to nonsmokers in the insula and inferior frontal region.
“There is also evidence that adolescents who smoke ≤5 cigarettes per day display attenuated responses to other non-drug rewards, including pleasurable food images, relative to non-smokers, in areas including the insula and inferior frontal region.”
From Developmental toxicity of nicotine: A transdisciplinary synthesis and implications for emerging tobacco products (2017) · cites this paper as [256]
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- Authors
- Rubinstein, M. L., Luks, T. L., Dryden, W. Y., Rait, M. A., & Simpson, G. V.
- Affiliations
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Venue
- Nicotine & Tobacco Research
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2011-03-31
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 751-755
- ISSN
- 1462-2203 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-994X
- PMC
- PMC3150683
- OpenAlex
- W2140337498
- Cited by
- 43
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 3.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nicotine & Tobacco Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (R01CA140216)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Study
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- adolescent smoking, light smokers, nicotine, food reward, mesocorticolimbic circuit, dopamine, insula, inferior frontal cortex, rolandic operculum, brain activation, early intervention
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Brain, Cues, Dopamine, Eating, Female, Food, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Nicotine, Perception, Smoking, Case-Control Studies
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