Lu Yiming, Dong Fang, Wang Juan, Xu Yanhong, Ma Yuxin, Cheng Yongxin, Dong Youwei, Ren Zhiwei, Yuan Kai, Yu Dahua
School of Digital and Intelligent Industry (School of Cyber Science and Technology), Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, Inner Mongolia, People's Republic China.
School of Automation and Electrical Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China.
Nicotine Tob Res. 2025 Jul 28. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntaf088.
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.
尼古丁成瘾是全球范围内普遍存在的问题，每年导致数百万人死亡和患病。年轻时开始吸烟的人更容易对尼古丁上瘾。线索诱导渴望范式用于研究与尼古丁依赖相关的神经系统。本研究的目的是比较吸烟者和非吸烟者在吸烟刺激下功能连接的相干性变化。
我们招募了32名年轻吸烟者和年龄匹配的非吸烟者。我们计算了两组在吸烟刺激和中性刺激下的半球间和半球内相干性，并与相关量表进行了相关性分析。
在吸烟线索反应性方面，与非吸烟者相比，年轻吸烟者在额叶区域表现出更强的半球间δ相干性。在左右半球，吸烟者均表现出更强的半球内δ相干性。与中性刺激相比，吸烟者在额叶和中央区域表现出更强的半球间δ相干性。在左半球，额叶-中央和额叶-枕叶之间的半球内δ相干性更强。在右半球，额叶-中央区域的δ和θ相干性更强。此外，在年轻吸烟者中，额叶相干性与吸烟包年数以及线索诱导刺激下的渴望变化之间存在显著相关性。
尼古丁可能会损害年轻吸烟者大脑的相干性，这可能导致认知功能受损、决策能力下降以及对成瘾相关线索的强烈记忆反应。
年轻吸烟者在吸烟刺激下大脑相干性增强及其与吸烟强度和渴望变化的关系可能代表着皮质效率降低和认知加工偏差。并且由于注意偏向机制，吸烟者会将更多资源分配给吸烟刺激并产生更强的渴望。
