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The Daily OrangeInjury to brain shown to help smokers completely kick habit
By Zachary Kineke
Posted: 2/20/07, 9:37 PM EST Section: News
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The lead researcher, UI graduate student Nasir Naqvi, started the study based on a former research subject of his, said Dr. David Rudrauf, a post-doctoral scholar at the university. While conducting a study on smoking addiction, Naqvi found a man with brain damage who said after the damage occurred, his body "forgot the urge to smoke."
Naqvi then, encouraged by his advisor, began a study of nearly 70 smokers who had suffered brain damage, Rudrauf said. About half had quit after the injury, and were asked about their experience of quitting smoking.
Researchers found that people with damage to the insula quit immediately and without difficulty, Rudrauf said. The insula, located fairly deep in the brain's outer layer, is involved in awareness of the body's state, emotions and urges.
How these studies might be applied practically, however, is still up in the air.
"Pharmacologically, it's not clear if there are any receptors that can be targeted specific to the insular," said Rudrauf, one of the authors of the study.
There are a few ways other than drugs that could be used to fight smoking addiction, based on discovering the role of the insula, Rudrauf said. One would rely on a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation - a magnetic coil, positioned outside the head, is used to generate magnetic pulses capable of shutting down specific regions of the brain. But the location of the insula poses a potential problem for this method.
"TMS is usually used on regions near the surface of the brain," he said. "It's not very specific or good enough to hit deep structures like the insula. Technology is going to need to go farther."
Robert Barlow, professor of neuroscience and ophthalmology at the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center, said this study could be critical to the health community.
"Stopping smoking is the single most important voluntary action someone can do to improve their health," he said.
The difficulty of quitting smoking also shouldn't be underestimated, Barlow said. Experiments were done in the 1980s where monkeys would perform tasks to receive different addictive substances. Only when the reward was nicotine did the monkeys go as far as to work themselves to death by exhaustion.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Drug Rehab
posted 7/25/08 @ 10:35 AM EST
You know what, I hope this study is accurate. I'd hit my head if I know I can get rid of this nasty habit of smoking. Of course, I won't do it because that would be sick of me. (Continued…)
alcohol rehab facility
posted 10/28/08 @ 4:06 PM EST
Whoa...I think I'll stick to my patch, thank you
Life Coach Los Angeles
posted 4/02/09 @ 3:35 PM EST
This sounds pretty freightening, but I get that anything is better than lung cancer!
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