A recent study finds that an area of the brain may be responsible for addictive behavior such as smoking. ScienceNOW Daily News reported that studies of surviving stroke sufferers indicate that a specific area of the brain feeds addictive impulses. The research may have broad implications for smokers and other addicts who are trying to quit their addictions. The insula is the part of the brain that is thought to control addictions and urges and is found in a deep fold of the cerebral cortex. The study examined 19 cigarette smokers with damage to their insula because of stroke or other neurological problems. Significantly, 12 stopped smoking immediately after their brain injury.

These patients reported feeling no urges to smoke and no relapses since they quit. One of the 12 participants who stopped immediately was smoking 40 unfiltered cigarettes a day, and before his stroke he had no intention of quitting. Only 4 of the 50 smokers with brain damage that did not include the insula quit smoking with comparable ease.

The insula lights up in brain scans when addicts are exposed to pictures of others participating in the addictive behavior. It also lights up when the person is actually participating in addictive behavior. The study gives credibility to the idea that the insula mediates emotional responses that are contributed to addiction.

There is a possibility that the insula causes a person to feel that smoking is a bodily need. The bodily effects of smoking, such as the effects smoking has on the airways, are an important part of the satisfaction smokers gain from their habit. If this is correct, therapies that provide physical sensations that stimulate the insula and, inturn, satisfy the smoker, may prove to be more beneficial than nicotine patches that just feed the addiction with the drug involved.

For more information:

Miller, G. (2007, January 25). Brain damage sheds light on urge to smoke. ScienceNOW Daily News. Retrieved February 7, 2007 from http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/125/1

Taken from Annals of Psychotherapy 10.1