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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Researchers find stroke victims who easily quit smoking after suffering injury to a part of the brain.
Chemical dependency can result from many things: alcohol, caffeine, illegal drugs like cocaine1, legal drugs like pain killers2. But one of the most difficult dependencies to break is also one of the most common: smoking. The body becomes addicted3 to the nicotine4 in tobacco. Now, researchers may have found an important link in the brain to smoking addiction5.
Scientists at the University of Southern California and the University of Iowa studied thirty-two former smokers6. All of the men and women had brain injuries as a result of strokes.
Half of them reported that they were able to give up cigarettes quickly and easily after they suffered the brain damage. Magnetic resonance7 imaging showed that twelve of those sixteen patients had suffered damage to a part of the brain called the insula.
The insula is found near the ear. Experts believe it somehow brings together emotional experience and sensory8 information with some activities like breathing. Experiments have suggested that the insula has a lot to do with the experience of pain and some basic emotions like fear, anger and happiness.
The patients in the study had all smoked at least five cigarettes a day for two years. One of the sixteen who reported that they quit smoking immediately and without effort had smoked as many as forty a day.
Antoine Bechara was one of the leaders of the study. He and co-author Hanna Damasio work at the Brain and Creativity Institute, a new center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The other authors of the study were Nasir Naqvi and David Rudrauf of the University of Iowa.
Antoine Bechara says the insula is not the only area of the brain involved in cigarette addiction. He says many parts of the brain are connected with substance dependency. But he says damage to the insula does seem to destroy a necessary link in the smoking addiction.
The patients did not lose all dependencies -- they still had a normal desire for food, for example. This may suggest that the insula is more responsible for dependencies that come from a learned pleasure, like smoking. And the researchers say their discovery may point to a weak spot in smoking addiction.
They say it could lead to better ways to help people stop smoking -- but much more research is needed. The findings appeared in Science magazine.
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver9. You can find transcripts10 of our reports and audio files at www.unsv.com. I'm Barbara Klein.
Researchers find stroke victims who easily quit smoking after suffering injury to a part of the brain.
Chemical dependency can result from many things: alcohol, caffeine, illegal drugs like cocaine1, legal drugs like pain killers2. But one of the most difficult dependencies to break is also one of the most common: smoking. The body becomes addicted3 to the nicotine4 in tobacco. Now, researchers may have found an important link in the brain to smoking addiction5.
Scientists at the University of Southern California and the University of Iowa studied thirty-two former smokers6. All of the men and women had brain injuries as a result of strokes.
Half of them reported that they were able to give up cigarettes quickly and easily after they suffered the brain damage. Magnetic resonance7 imaging showed that twelve of those sixteen patients had suffered damage to a part of the brain called the insula.
The insula is found near the ear. Experts believe it somehow brings together emotional experience and sensory8 information with some activities like breathing. Experiments have suggested that the insula has a lot to do with the experience of pain and some basic emotions like fear, anger and happiness.
The patients in the study had all smoked at least five cigarettes a day for two years. One of the sixteen who reported that they quit smoking immediately and without effort had smoked as many as forty a day.
Antoine Bechara was one of the leaders of the study. He and co-author Hanna Damasio work at the Brain and Creativity Institute, a new center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The other authors of the study were Nasir Naqvi and David Rudrauf of the University of Iowa.
Antoine Bechara says the insula is not the only area of the brain involved in cigarette addiction. He says many parts of the brain are connected with substance dependency. But he says damage to the insula does seem to destroy a necessary link in the smoking addiction.
The patients did not lose all dependencies -- they still had a normal desire for food, for example. This may suggest that the insula is more responsible for dependencies that come from a learned pleasure, like smoking. And the researchers say their discovery may point to a weak spot in smoking addiction.
They say it could lead to better ways to help people stop smoking -- but much more research is needed. The findings appeared in Science magazine.
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver9. You can find transcripts10 of our reports and audio files at www.unsv.com. I'm Barbara Klein.
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1
cocaine
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| n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂） | |
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2
killers
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| 凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事 | |
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3
addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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4
nicotine
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| n.(化)尼古丁，烟碱 | |
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5
addiction
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| n.上瘾入迷，嗜好 | |
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6
smokers
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| 吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 ) | |
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7
resonance
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| n.洪亮；共鸣；共振 | |
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8
sensory
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| adj.知觉的，感觉的，知觉器官的 | |
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9
weaver
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| n.织布工；编织者 | |
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10
transcripts
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| n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本 | |
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