Smoking status affects cognitive, emotional and neural-connectivity response to distress-inducing auditory feedback

An important motive for cigarette smoking and impediment to cessation success is the avoidance of affective distress. Low levels of distress tolerance have been linked to smoking behavior, cessation history, smoking characteristics, and risk of recurrence among people who smoke. A better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying distress sensitivity could inform approaches to help reduce avoidance of affective distress during smoking cessation. Previously among healthy participants, low distress tolerance on an MRI version of the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT-M), which induces distress via negative auditory feedback, was associated with larger differences in task-based functional connectivity (TBFC) between the auditory seed region and the anterior insula.

Here, we tested differences in task performance and TBFC during affective distress among people who smoke (Smoke; n = 31) and people who quit smoking (Ex-smoke; n = 31).

Smoke had poorer task accuracy and reported a steeper increase in negative mood from the easy to distress blocks. Smoke had a larger difference in connectivity (distress > easy condition) between the auditory seed region and the left inferior frontal gyrus and right anterior insula. Additionally, task accuracy positively correlated with the difference in connectivity (distress > easy condition) with the left inferior frontal gyrus and the right anterior insula among Smoke but not Ex-smoke.

These results are consistent with the idea that people who smoke are more sensitive to cognitive-affective distress and that the inferior frontal gyrus and anterior insula play important roles in the regulation of distress.