Friday, January 26, 2007

Adiction face


“US Scientists have discovered that when a small area of a smoker's brain is damaged it often makes them quit smoking easily. It is possible that this discovery could lead to treatments that target that same area of the brain to help smokers give up the habit.” Medical News.
“A number of brain systems have been implicated in addictive behavior, but none have yet been shown to be necessary for maintaining the addiction to cigarette smoking. We found that smokers with brain damage involving the insula, a region implicated in conscious urges, were more likely than smokers with brain damage not involving the insula to undergo a disruption of smoking addiction, characterized by the ability to quit smoking easily, immediately, without relapse, and without persistence of the urge to smoke.” Naqvi, Rudrauf, Damasio, Bechara, Science 26 January 2007.