Abstract
Smoking is one of the most prevalent dependence disorders. Previous studies have detected structural and functional deficits in smokers. However, few studies focused on the changes of resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the brain regions with structural deficits in young adult smokers. Twenty-six young adult smokers and 26 well-matched healthy non-smokers participated in our study. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and RSFC were employed to investigate the structural and functional changes in young adult smokers. Compared with healthy non-smokers, young smokers showed increased gray matter (GM) volume in the left putamen and decreased GM volume in the left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Moreover, GM volume in the left ACC has a negative correlation trend with pack-years and GM volume in the left putamen was positively correlated with pack-years. The left ACC and putamen with abnormal volumes were chosen as the regions of interest (ROIs) for the RSFC analysis. We found that smokers showed increased RSFC between the left ACC and right amygdala and between the left putamen and right anterior insula. We revealed structural and functional deficits within the frontostriatal circuits in young smokers, which may shed new insights into the neural mechanisms of smoking.
Highlights
Smoking related diseases cause more than 1 million yearly deaths in China
The age period from late adolescence to adulthood is associated with the highest prevalence of cigarette smoking, which is a time of continued brain development that may be affected by environmental perturbations such as nicotine exposure through cigarettes (Yu et al, 2016)
Previous studies found that the white matter (WM) changes in smokers was nonlinear during adolescence to adulthood, which may suggest that developmental maturation of WM was stimulated by nicotine and the development of the frontal lobes was affected (Barnea-Goraly et al, 2005; Ashtari et al, 2007; Yu et al, 2016)
Summary
Smoking related diseases cause more than 1 million yearly deaths in China (http://www.chinacdc.cn/). Previous studies indicated that people who start smoking at an early age are more likely to become life-long smokers and are more susceptible to nicotine addiction than adults (Taioli and Wynder, 1991; O’Loughlin et al, 2003; White et al, 2009; Health and Services, 2012). Smoking during this special period may cause structural and functional changes in the brain and promote nicotine dependence for life (DeBry and Tiffany, 2008; Dwyer et al, 2009). It is extremely important to understand the neural mechanisms of smoking in young adult smokers
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