Janse Van Rensburg Kate, Taylor Adrian, Hodgson Tim, Benattayallah Abdelmalek
School of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Exeter, St Luke's Campus, Exeter EX1 2LU, UK.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2009 Apr;203(3):589-98. doi: 10.1007/s00213-008-1405-3. Epub 2008 Nov 18.
Substances of misuse (such as nicotine) are associated with increases in activation within the mesocorticolimbic brain system, a system thought to mediate the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse. Pharmacological treatments have been designed to reduce cigarette cravings during temporary abstinence. Exercise has been found to be an effective tool for controlling cigarette cravings.
The objective of this study is to assess the effect of exercise on regional brain activation in response to smoking-related images during temporary nicotine abstinence.
In a randomized crossover design, regular smokers (n = 10) undertook an exercise (10 min moderate-intensity stationary cycling) and control (passive seating for same duration) session, following 15 h of nicotine abstinence. Following treatments, participants entered a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanner. Subjects viewed a random series of smoking and neutral images for 3 s, with an average inter-stimulus-interval (ISI) of 10 s. Self-reported cravings were assessed at baseline, mid-, and post-treatments.
A significant interaction effect (time by group) was found, with self-reported cravings lower during and following exercise. During control scanning, significant activation was recorded in areas associated with reward (caudate nucleus), motivation (orbitofrontal cortex) and visuo-spatial attention (parietal lobe, parahippocampal, and fusiform gyrus). Post-exercise scanning showed hypo-activation in these areas with a concomitant shift of activation towards areas identified in the 'brain default mode' (Broadmanns Area 10).
The study confirms previous evidence that a single session of exercise can reduce cigarette cravings, and for the first time provides evidence of a shift in regional activation in response to smoking cues.
滥用物质（如尼古丁）与中脑边缘脑系统的激活增加有关，该系统被认为介导了滥用药物的奖赏效应。药物治疗旨在在短期戒烟期间减少对香烟的渴望。运动已被发现是控制对香烟渴望的有效工具。
本研究的目的是评估运动对短期尼古丁戒断期间，大脑对与吸烟相关图像的区域激活的影响。
在随机交叉设计中，经常吸烟者（n = 10）在尼古丁戒断15小时后，进行一次运动（10分钟中等强度的固定自行车运动）和一次对照（相同持续时间的被动就坐）。治疗后，参与者进入功能磁共振成像（fMRI）扫描仪。受试者观看一系列随机的吸烟和中性图像，持续3秒，平均刺激间隔（ISI）为10秒。在基线、治疗中及治疗后评估自我报告的渴望程度。
发现了显著的交互作用（时间×组），运动期间及运动后自我报告的渴望程度较低。在对照扫描期间，表示奖赏（尾状核）、动机（眶额皮质）和视觉空间注意力（顶叶、海马旁回和梭状回）的区域记录到显著激活。运动后扫描显示这些区域的激活减弱，同时激活向“大脑默认模式”（布罗德曼区10）中确定的区域转移。
该研究证实了先前的证据，即单次运动可以减少对香烟的渴望，并且首次提供了响应吸烟线索时区域激活发生变化的证据。
