The Biased Reaction and Higher Cortical Coherence Under Smoking Cue in Young Smokers

Nicotine addiction is a widespread problem globally, causing millions of deaths and illnesses every year. People who start smoking at a young age are more likely to become addicted to nicotine. The cue-induced craving paradigm is used to study the nervous system related to nicotine dependence. The purpose of this study is to compare the coherence changes in functional connectivity in response to smoking stimuli between smokers and non-smokers.

We recruited 32 young smokers and age-matched non-smokers. We calculated the inter-hemispheric and intra-hemispheric coherences under smoking stimuli and neutral stimuli for both groups and conducted correlation analyses with relevant scales.

Under smoking cue reactivity, compared with non-smokers, young smokers showed stronger inter-hemispheric delta coherence in the frontal region. In both the left and right hemispheres, smokers showed stronger intra-hemispheric delta coherence. Compared with neutral stimuli, smokers had stronger inter-hemispheric delta coherence in the frontal and central regions. In the left hemisphere, the intra-hemispheric delta coherence between frontal-central and frontal-occipital was stronger. In the right hemisphere, the delta and theta coherence across frontal-central region was stronger. Moreover, in young smokers, there was a significant correlation between frontal coherence and pack-year, as well as craving change under cue-induced stimuli.

Nicotine may damage the coherence of the brains of young smokers, which may lead to impaired cognitive function, reduced decision-making ability, and a strong memory response to addiction-related cues.

The enhanced brain coherence of young smokers under smoking stimuli and its relationship with smoking intensity and craving changes may represent a reduction in cortical efficiency and cognitive processing biases. And due to the attentional bias mechanism, smokers will allocate more resources to smoking stimuli and have a stronger craving.