Journal
MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING
Volume 20, Issue 2, Pages 141-145Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/S0730-725X(02)00494-0
Keywords
nicotine; blood oxygen level dependent signal; cerebral blood flow
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is increasingly being applied in the study of brain effects of nicotine. In addition, because tobacco smoking is common, many subjects studied with fMRI for other reasons may have appreciable levels of nicotine in plasma and brain during scanning. However, there is concern that the vascular effects of nicotine may alter the coupling between blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal and neuronal activity. The objective of this study was to test for evidence of alteration of BOLD signal response of occipital cortex, a region with a relatively low concentration of neuronal nicotine receptors, to photic stimulation during intravenous infusion of nicotine. Nine nicotine dependent healthy smokers were withdrawn from nicotine under controlled conditions and then scanned while receiving photic stimulation and successive intravenous infusions of saline and nicotine. No evidence for an effect of nicotine on BOLD signal response to photic stimulation was detected at the doses studied. This observation suggests that nicotine does not alter the coupling between BOLD signal and neuronal activity in the visual cortex. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available