Today@Dal

Posted June 11 by the Chronicle Herald:

It has been said that kicking a smoking habit can be harder than quitting a heroin addiction.

Why is it so difficult to stop smoking and much harder for some to kick the habit than others?

Dalhousie University researchers are hoping that imaging the brain might reveal the answers. They are using magnetic resonance imaging to look at the brain’s response to cues like videos of people smoking.

“We were interested in trying to determine what is different. Why is it that some people are able to quit and other people aren’t? Why is it that some people are dependent and some people can take it or leave it?” said Kim Good, the study’s co-principal investigator.

The study is looking at various groups, including non-smokers, occasional smokers, former smokers, those motivated to quit and chronic dependent smokers, said Good, a neuroscientist and associate professor in Dalhousie’s department of psychiatry.

“(Chronic dependent smokers) are people who smoke every day, many cigarettes a day and have tried to quit and just can’t. These are the kind of tried and true smokers.”

The idea behind the study is to get a clearer picture of what changes occur in the brain as a person transitions from one phase to another, said Good, who is collaborating on the project with Sean Barrett, an associate professor in Dalhousie’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.

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