Validation of Cue Induced Imaging Paradigm in Nicotine Dependent Smokers

Functional magnetic resonance imaging has demonstrated that the same types of environmental cues that induce craving activate an integrated network of brain areas involved in the appetitive and motivational process of addiction to drugs of abuse including nicotine ( Brieter 119; Koob 2001, Volkow 2003).In nicotine deprived smokers both mesolimbic dopamine reward pathways (amygdala, ventral tegmental area, and medial thalamus) and areas related to visuospatial attention (bilateral prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex and right fusiform gyrus) are activated by exposure to smoking images (Due 2002, David 2005).

In line with the National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) emphasis on novel methods for investigating substance use disorders, the current study proposes to use fMRI to better understand the neurological correlates of cue reactivity among nicotine dependent smokers. This approach will permit the isolation of pathways that are relevant to cue induced craving.