Functional Neuroimaging of Reward Processing in Smokers

Nicotine like several other drugs of abuse acts onthe brain reward system. Altered function of themesocorticolimbic system has been associated with thetransition from controlled drug intake to acompulsive, uncontrolled drug consumptioncharacterizing addicted behavior. This study was performed using functional MagneticResonance Imaging (fMRI) (i) to investigate changesin brain activity in the reward system in response todifferent stimulus categories includingnon-substance related motivational stimuli (eroticstimuli, beautiful faces) and substance relatedstimuli (smoking-related stimuli) compared to neutralstimuli; (ii) to find out which category ofnon-substance related motivational stimuli, beautifulfaces or erotic stimuli, leads to a strongeractivation in the regions of interest; and (iii) todetermine the influence of two different experimentalfMRI designs, a blocked and an event-related design,on activation patterns in the brain reward system.