title: Lower ventral striatal activation during reward anticipation in adolescent smokers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to addiction, and in the case of smoking, this often leads to long-lasting nicotine dependence. The authors investigated a possible neural mechanism underlying this vulnerability.
  
  
  METHODS
  Functional MRI was performed during reward anticipation in 43 adolescent smokers and 43 subjects matched on age, gender, and IQ. The authors also assessed group differences in novelty seeking, impulsivity, and reward delay discounting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In relation to the comparison subjects, the adolescent smokers showed greater reward delay discounting and higher scores for novelty seeking. Neural responses in the ventral striatum during reward anticipation were significantly lower in the smokers than in the comparison subjects, and in the smokers this response was correlated with smoking frequency. Notably, the lower response to reward anticipation in the ventral striatum was also observed in smokers (N=14) who had smoked on fewer than 10 occasions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present findings suggest that a lower response to reward anticipation in the ventral striatum may be a vulnerability factor for the development of early nicotine use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Neuroscience, Universitaetsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. j.peters@uke.uni-hamburg.de
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.forename: Uli
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bromberg
authors.forename: Sophia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brassen
authors.forename: Mareike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Menz
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Banaschewski
authors.forename: Patricia J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Conrod
authors.forename: Herta
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Flor
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gallinat
authors.forename: Hugh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Garavan
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heinz
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Itterman
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lathrop
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Martinot
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Paus
authors.forename: Jean-Baptiste
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Poline
authors.forename: Trevor W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Robbins
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rietschel
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smolka
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ströhle
authors.forename: Maren
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Struve
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Loth
authors.forename: Gunter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schumann
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Büchel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000502:physiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D002189:Marijuana Abuse / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010552:Personality Assessment; D012201:Reward; D012907:Smoking / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology