Researchers of the Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin and Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) have found that a specific region of the cerebral cortex of smokers is thinner than that of people don't smoke.
This region is decisive for reward, impulse control, and the making of decisions.
To investigate the relation between cortical thickness and nicotine dependence, the brains of 22 smokers and 21 people who have never smoked in their lives were investigated with the aid of a magnetic resonance tomograph.
A comparison of the two groups showed that in the case of smokers, the thickness of the medial orbito-frontal cortex is, on average, smaller than in the case of people who have never smoked.
The thickness of this region decreased in relation to the increase in the daily consumption of cigarettes, and depending on how long in their lives the participants in the study had been smokers.
Although it is known from animal experiments that nicotine changes the development of the brain and leads to a damaging of neurocytes, it cannot be ruled out that the reduced thickness of the frontal cortex region found in the case of the participants in the study already existed before they started smoking.
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/187528
My comment:
I think frontal cortex region must already be thin in smokers even before they started smoking. I have been impulsive all my life & it’s certainly not because of smoking. It has something to do with my upbringing. Although I’m not a regular smoker but I have been smoking for almost 20 years. I also don’t think that I’m indecisive. If you can’t take one decision, you don’t become indecisive I guess.
They carried out this research on just 43 people. This is a very crucial study. They should have done this on at least 1000 or even more people.
I also think being spontaneous is nothing bad. I don’t know why it’s taken so badly. Plus, non-smokers hold certain rigid views about smokers. For instance, women who smoke are worse than sluts. This is the kind of comparison that one has no stomach to comprehend. And men who smoke are okay, but men who drink are bad. You know a person can be bad without ever doing one bad thing.
