Nicotine Withdrawal Weakens the Mind: Study

Nicotine withdrawal may actually be weakening the brain's ability to reign in automated instincts, such as giving in to cravings, according to a recent study.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Psychiatry, investigated the effects that nicotine withdrawal had on the human brain. Researchers primarily looked at the "executive control" brain network, a state of mind that is engaged when exerting more control over the brain's more standard automation, such as instinct.

According to the researcher's behind this most recent study, nearly 80 percent of smokers trying to quit wind up relapsing. It is common knowledge that smoking leads to a heavy nicotine addictions born of emotional dependency, but researchers sought to explain why quitting is so hard neurologically.

Using brain scans taken with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers were able to see that smokers who recently quit had weaker neurological connections between certain networks in the brain -- particularly between the "default mode" network, and the executive control network.

Regularly, human being go throughout their day relying almost entirely on the default mode network, which will determine actions to take based off basic urges, such as hunger or fear. Nicotine cravings also would fall under this category, as it is the default mode network that encourages action to be taken to resolve a nicotine craving. For smokers, due to this network, deciding to go and smoke seems relatively easy. The executive control network essentially overrides the default mode actions. It is easiest to think of this mode as enacting willpower. When someone wants to resist a craving or instinct (ie- choosing to resist the instinct to cry out in pain) their executive control network lights up with brain activity.

However, the fMRI scans of 37 healthy smoking study participants showed that increased abstinence from smoking, and the resulting nicotine withdrawal, actually weakens the brain's ability to switch from default mode to executive control. According to the study, this greater inability to disengage from the default mode network may be the reason many smokers with a strong nicotine habit find it so hard to quit.

The study was published in JAMA Psychiatry on March 12.