Neural Correlates of Risk Taking in Smokers before and after Smoking Abstinence

描述（由申请人提供）：在美国，吸烟是可预防的健康相关发病率和死亡率的主要原因。然而，数以百万计的人决定开始吸烟或继续吸烟，尽管这是广泛的知识，这表明冒险行为可能在吸烟者和不吸烟者之间有所不同。此外，尽管人们试图戒烟的主要原因是为了改善他们的健康和寿命，但绝大多数戒烟尝试都失败了，这表明戒烟也可能改变冒险行为。本研究将结合ASL灌注和BOLD功能MRI，结合已验证的行为范式，对N=24名对照受试者和N=24名戒烟前后的活跃吸烟者的多巴胺能中边缘-额叶系统进行功能表征，以验证吸烟与中边缘系统差异功能相关的假设。戒烟会改变中脑边缘的音调。由于中脑边缘系统的调性可以被药理学、生理学和潜在的行为调节，因此在活跃和/或戒烟者中识别该系统功能的改变可能为减少吸烟冲动和提高戒烟成功率提供新的策略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Smoking is the leading cause of preventable health-related morbidity and mortality in the United States. However, millions of individuals decide to begin to smoke or continue to smoke despite this widespread knowledge, suggesting that risk taking behavior may differ between smokers and nonsmokers. Furthermore, although the major reason people attempt to quit smoking is to improve their health and longevity the overwhelming majority of quit attempts fail, suggesting that smoking cessation may also alter risk taking behavior. The proposed research will combine ASL perfusion and BOLD functional MRI with well- validated behavior paradigms to functionally characterize the dopaminergic mesolimbic- frontal system, which subserves decisions under risk, in N=24 control subjects and N=24 active smokers before and after smoking abstinence, in order to test the hypothesis that smoking is associated with differential function of this mesolimbic system, and that smoking abstinence alters mesolimbic tone. Because the tone in the mesolimbic system can be pharmacologically, physiologically, and potentially behaviorally modulated, the identification of alterations in the functioning of this system in active and/or abstinent smokers may suggest novel strategies to reduce smoking drive and increase quit success. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project will combine brain imaging methods with well-validated behavior paradigms to measure brain activity of chronic smokers during performing the balloon analog risk task (BART) and at rest while smoking as usual and after 48 hours of smoking abstinence, which will be compared to brain activity of matched healthy controls, in order to functionally characterize the dopaminergic mesolimbic-frontal system in chronic smokers and test the hypothesis that smoking is associated with differential function of this mesolimbic-frontal system, and that smoking abstinence alters mesolimbic tone. Because the tone in the mesolimbic system can be pharmacologically, physiologically, and potentially behaviorally modulated, the identification of alterations in the functioning of this system in actie and/or abstinent smokers may suggest novel strategies to reduce smoking drive and increase quit success.