Brain Stimulation For Smoking Cessation: Targeting Cognitive Deficits
Many cigarette smokers fail to quit because they experience cognitive deficits during a quit attempt, and instead relapse because smoking will alleviate these deficits. For example, during abstinence, smokers will experience increases in hyper-impulsivity (Krishnan-Sarin et al., 2007), negative affect (Faulkner et al., 2017), habitual decision-making and difficulty concentrating (Hendricks et al., 2006). Identifying ways to alleviate these difficulties during a quit attempt may therefore aid smoking cessation.
Understanding the brain mechanisms of these smoking-related cognitive deficits can aid the optimisation of brain stimulation techniques that have shown promise for smoking cessation. For example, stimulation of the prefrontal cortex of non-smokers has shown promise in decreasing impulsivity (Brevet-Aeby et al., 2016), improving the ability to self-regulate negative emotions (Feeser et al., 2014), and in improving sustained attention (Nelson et al., 2014). As such, brain stimulation may hold promise for aiding smoking cessation efforts via alleviating smoking-related cognitive deficits.
We are therefore currently undertaking a study to determine the neural mechanisms of the above cognitive deficits, with the aim of then alleviating such deficits via brain stimulation. We will use computational modelling and simultaneous transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and fMRI/1H-MRS to achieve these goals. If you are interested in taking part in this research, please click here.
Published Work
Faulkner P, Machon S, Brown CRH, Sandrini M, Kamboj S & Allen P (2022) Cigarette Smoking is Associated with Difficulties in the Use of Reappraisal for Emotion Regulation Drug and Alcohol Dependence