title: Functional Connectivity During Exposure to Favorite-Food, Stress, and Neutral-Relaxing Imagery Differs Between Smokers and Nonsmokers.
abstract: Tobacco-use disorder is a complex condition involving multiple brain networks and presenting with multiple behavioral correlates including changes in diet and stress. In a previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of neural responses to favorite-food, stress, and neutral-relaxing imagery, smokers versus nonsmokers demonstrated blunted corticostriatal-limbic responses to favorite-food cues. Based on other recent reports of alterations in functional brain networks in smokers, the current study examined functional connectivity during exposure to favorite-food, stress, and neutral-relaxing imagery in smokers and nonsmokers, using the same dataset.
  
  
  
  The intrinsic connectivity distribution was measured to identify brain regions that differed in degree of functional connectivity between groups during each imagery condition. Resulting clusters were evaluated for seed-to-voxel connectivity to identify the specific connections that differed between groups during each imagery condition.
  
  
  
  During exposure to favorite-food imagery, smokers versus nonsmokers showed lower connectivity in the supramarginal gyrus, and differences in connectivity between the supramarginal gyrus and the corticostriatal-limbic system. During exposure to neutral-relaxing imagery, smokers versus nonsmokers showed greater connectivity in the precuneus, and greater connectivity between the precuneus and the posterior insula and rolandic operculum. During exposure to stress imagery, smokers versus nonsmokers showed lower connectivity in the cerebellum.
  
  
  
  These findings provide data-driven insights into smoking-related alterations in brain functional connectivity patterns related to appetitive, relaxing, and stressful states.
  
  
  
  This study uses a data-driven approach to demonstrate that smokers and nonsmokers show differential patterns of functional connectivity during guided imagery related to personalized favorite-food, stress, and neutral-relaxing cues, in brain regions implicated in attention, reward-related, emotional, and motivational processes. For smokers, these differences in connectivity may impact appetite, stress, and relaxation, and may interfere with smoking cessation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT; kathleen.garrison@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Kathleen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Garrison
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Child Study Center, and Neurobiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT;
authors.forename: Rajita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT;
authors.forename: Cheryl M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Lacadie
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT;
authors.forename: Dustin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Scheinost
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, and Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT;
authors.forename: Ania M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Jastreboff
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT;
authors.forename: R Todd
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Constable
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Child Study Center, Neurobiology, and CASA Columbia, Yale School of Medicine, and Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Marc N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Potenza
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D019018:Imagery, Psychotherapy; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012063:Relaxation; D012907:Smoking / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000517:prevention & control