TOPLINE:

A multi-method investigation of abstinence-motivated smokers revealed that appetitive responses play a limited role in chronic tobacco dependence, with neural imaging showing reduced activity in reward-related brain regions but increased activity in motor areas, suggesting habitual motor responses might be more significant.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a cross-sectional investigation involving 362 chronic smokers (mean age, 42.33 years; 51.38% women) with moderate-to-severe tobacco dependence who were non-deprived and motivated to quit.
• Measurements included the Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) and others for assessing cognitive behaviour, facial electromyography (EMG) for psychophysiological responses, and functional MRI (fMRI) for neural cue-reactivity.
• Smoking-related variables including the number of cigarettes smoked per day, severity of tobacco dependence (assessed using the 12-item Cigarette Dependence Scale), and current craving (determined using the Brief Questionnaire of Smoking Urges) were evaluated against appetitive responses and inhibitory control performance using a Stroop task.
• The study evaluated whether appetitive responses to smoking-related vs neutral stimuli loaded onto the single latent factor of incentive sensitisation.

TAKEAWAY:

• Neural measures revealed significantly heightened reactivity to smoking-related vs neutral stimuli in sensory and motor regions, particularly in the right precuneus (P < .001).
• Activity in reward-related regions, specifically in the right striatum, was significantly reduced (P = .021).
• Higher craving levels were significantly associated with stronger appetitive responses across multiple assessments (P < .041), whereas heavier smoking and greater tobacco dependence were linked to reduced neural reactivity to smoking-related stimuli (P < .036).
• A negative association was found between severity of tobacco dependence and activity in motor regions, suggesting reduced reliance on external cues for smoking behaviour at high dependence levels.

IN PRACTICE:

"The results provide limited evidence to suggest that appetitive responses play a significant role in abstinence-motivated, non-deprived, moderate-to-heavy tobacco-dependent adults with chronic smoking behavior; rather, they suggest the importance of attentional and motor responses," the authors wrote.

"Training interventions should focus on disrupting smoking cue-induced strong automatized (habitual) motor responses," they added.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Franziska Motka, Department of Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Munich, Germany. It was published online on December 14 in Addiction.

LIMITATIONS:

Participants smoked freely before assessments, potentially reducing appetitive responses due to nicotine satiation. The smoking-related stimuli used in EMG, fMRI, and AAT assessments only elicited moderate craving levels. The timing of craving assessment may have affected results as it was measured at the start of the study, whereas cognitive-behavioural tasks were completed 1-1.5 hours later. The study lacked non-smokers (control individuals) and rewarding non-smoking stimuli (control conditions) for comparisons. Sample demographics showed potential bias, with the cohort comprising more women and individuals with higher education levels than the broader German smoking population, limiting generalisability.

DISCLOSURES:

The study received financial support from the German Research Foundation. The procurement of the MRI scanner used in the study was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft grant for major research instrumentation. The authors declared having no competing interests.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.