Belief about nicotine content in cigarette may change brain activity and craving
The study, recently published in Frontiers in Psychiatry , found that smoking a nicotine cigarette but believing that it lacked nicotine failed to satisfy cravings related to nicotine addiction. Contrary to their expectations, researchers found that in order to satisfy nicotine cravings, smokers had to not only smoke a cigarette with nicotine but also believe that they were smoking nicotine. "These results suggest that for drugs to have an effect on a person, he or she needs to believe that the drug is present," said Dr. Xiaosi Gu, assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and the study's lead author. The scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to capture neural activity in the insula cortex, a region of the brain that plays a role in diverse functions such as bodily perception and self-awareness. The insula cortex is also associated with drug cravings and addiction, Gu said. Twenty-four chronic, nicotine-addicted sm...