Brain Reactivity to Smoking Cues Prior to Smoking Cessation Predicts Ability to Maintain Tobacco Abstinence

“…In evaluating the sexes individually, we also replicated the finding of high SC reactivity in men (Wetherill et al, 2013), but failed to find any significant SC-related activation in women. This is inconsistent with our prior studies showing heightened SC-induced brain reactivity in women (Janes et al, 2009, 2010, 2012; Wetherill et al, 2013). However, this variability is consistent with the idea that circulating gonadal hormones in women impact women’s responses to SCs potentially leading to variability across studies (Franklin et al, 2015; Mendrek et al, 2014; for review see Wetherill et al, 2016).…”

“…Given that smokers show larger P300 and LPP amplitudes for smoking cues relative to neutral cues in the current, as well as in previous, studies (Littel et al 2012 ), we expected that increased attentional processing of smoking cues in real life would trigger craving and would therefore interfere with smoking cessation. The discrepancy between the findings of the current study and studies showing that enhanced cognitive processing of smoking is related to reduced quit success (Janes et al 2010 ; Powell et al 2010 ; Versace et al 2014 ; Waters et al 2003b ) may be explained by the timing of the measurement of smoking cue reactivity. In the current study, participants were tested in the week before the quit attempt and were abstinent for only 1 h before testing.…”

“…For instance, disrupted prefrontal function is found in sign-tracking rodents, leading to the inability to suppress attention to reward cues (Paolone et al, 2013). This finding is consistent with our prior work showing that highly cue-reactive individuals had greater difficulty ignoring smoking words task (Janes et al, 2010), which was associated with reduced prefrontal gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA; Janes et al, 2013). Reduced communication between prefrontal brain regions and cue-reactive areas such as the insula and striatum contribute to relapse vulnerability (Addicott et al, 2015; Janes et al, 2010; Sweitzer et al, 2016; Zelle et al, 2016).…”

“…This finding is consistent with our prior work showing that highly cue-reactive individuals had greater difficulty ignoring smoking words task (Janes et al, 2010), which was associated with reduced prefrontal gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA; Janes et al, 2013). Reduced communication between prefrontal brain regions and cue-reactive areas such as the insula and striatum contribute to relapse vulnerability (Addicott et al, 2015; Janes et al, 2010; Sweitzer et al, 2016; Zelle et al, 2016). In contrast, striatal smoking cue reactivity is reduced when individuals employ cognitive regulation strategies that upregulate prefrontal activity (Kober et al, 2010), suggesting that highly cue reactive smokers may benefit from such therapeutic techniques.…”