Belief in the nicotine content of cigarettes influences the brain?
Smoking a cigarette believing it contains nicotine is not the same as consuming one thinking it does not. Researchers at the University of Texas Center for Mental Health at Dallas have found that subjects who smoke a cigarette that they think is lacking in nicotine are unable to satisfy their addiction-related cravings. In other words, to satisfy their craving for nicotine, smokers must not only consume a cigarette with nicotine, but must also believe that they are smoking it, the authors note."Our results suggest that for drugs to have an effect on a person, they need to believe that the drug is present," says Xiaosi Gu, lead author of the study.
Little is known about the specific neural mechanisms through which cognitive factors influence desire and brain responses. For this reason, the aim of the study was to investigate how cognitive factors, such as beliefs, influence subjective desire and neuronal activity in individuals addicted to nicotine.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the scientists recorded the neuronal activity of the probands' insula, a region of the brain that is involved in different functions, including body perception and self-awareness. It is also associated with immediate drug craving and addiction, Gu says.
A total of 24 people with smokers participated in the double-blind study. Over four sessions, they were given nicotine cigarettes twice and nicotine-free (placebo) twice. In each test, the experimenters indicated to the volunteers whether or not the cigarette contained the addictive substance; sometimes the explanation was true; others, false. In this way, the neuronal activity of the probands was examined in four conditions: one, in which they believed that the cigarette they smoked contained nicotine, but they were administered a placebo; the second, in which they thought that the cigarette did not contain nicotine, although it did; the third, in which they believed that the cigarette contained nicotine and it did, and a last, in which they believed that the cigarette did not contain nicotine and, indeed, they consumed a placebo.
After smoking, the participants completed an exercise under the functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The scientists assessed their level of craving for tobacco before smoking and after solving the task. They found that the brains of the subjects showed greater activity when they smoked a cigarette than they believed contained nicotine, and it did. In contrast, when they smoked a cigarette with nicotine but believed it lacked it, neural activity varied.
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The study supports previous findings showing that beliefs can alter the effects of drugs on subjective desire to use. These results could help devise novel methods for treating addictions, the researchers suggest.
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