Journal
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
Volume 58, Issue 2, Pages 143-150Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.03.028
Keywords
functional magnetic resonance imaging; tobacco; nicotine; withdrawal; brain imaging; prefrontal cortex
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Funding
- NCRR NIH HHS [M01 RR 00865, M01 RR000865, RR08655] Funding Source: Medline
- NIDA NIH HHS [R01 DA020872-01, R01 DA014093.03, R01 DA020872, R21 DA 13627, DA13637, R21 DA013627, R01 DA014093, R01 DA015059-04, R01 DA015059] Funding Source: Medline
- PHS HHS [R12169] Funding Source: Medline
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Background: When nicotine-dependent human subjects abstain from cigarette smoking, they exhibit deficits in working memory. An understanding of the neural substrates of such impairments may help to understand how nicotine affects cognition. Our aim, therefore, was to identify abnormalities in the circuitry that mediates working memory in nicotine-dependent subjects after they initiate abstinence from smoking. Methods: We used blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study eight smokers while they performed a letter version of the N-Back working memory task under satiety (<= 1.5 hours abstinence) and abstinence (>= 14 hours abstinence) conditions. Results: Task-related activity in the left dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) showed a significant interaction between test session (Satiety, abstinence) and task load (1-back, 2-back, and 3-back). This interaction reflected the fact that task-related activity in the satiety condition was relatively low during performance of the 1-back task but greater at the more difficult task levels, whereas task-related activity in the abstinence condition was relatively high at the 1-back level and did not increase at the more difficult task levels. Conclusions: We conclude that neural processing related to working memory in the left DLPFC is less efficient during acute abstinence from smoking than at smoking satiety.
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