Ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens activation to smoking-related pictorial cues in smokers and nonsmokers: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
BACKGROUND
Converging evidence from several theories of the development of incentive-sensitization to smoking-related environmental stimuli suggests that the ventral striatum plays an important role in the processing of smoking-related cue reactivity.


METHODS
Twenty-six healthy right-handed volunteers (14 smokers and 12 nonsmoking controls) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which neutral and smoking-related images were presented. Region of interest analyses were performed within the ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens (VS/NAc) for the contrast between smoking-related (SR) and nonsmoking related neutral (N) cues.


RESULTS
Group activation for SR versus N cues was observed in smokers but not in nonsmokers in medial orbitofrontal cortex, superior frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex, and posterior fusiform gyrus using whole-brain corrected Z thresholds and in the ventral VS/NAc using uncorrected Z-statistics (smokers Z = 3.2). Region of interest analysis of signal change within ventral VS/NAc demonstrated significantly greater activation to SR versus N cues in smokers than controls.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first demonstration of greater VS/NAc activation in addicted smokers than nonsmokers presented with smoking-related cues using fMRI. Smokers, but not controls, demonstrated activation to SR versus N cues in a distributed reward signaling network consistent with cue reactivity studies of other drugs of abuse.
David
Sean P
SP
Cancer Research United Kingdom General Practice Research Group, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Infirmary, UK. Sean_David@Brown.Edu
Munafò
Marcus R
MR
Johansen-Berg
Heidi
H
Smith
Stephen M
SM
Rogers
Robert D
RD
Matthews
Paul M
PM
Walton
Robert T
RT
D000328:Adult; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000503:physiopathology; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
D010100:Oxygen