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Physiological effects of cigarette smoking in the limbic system revealed by 3 tesla magnetic resonance spectroscopy

  • Translational Neurosciences - Original Article
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Abstract

Several studies and recent models of effects of nicotine, the main addictive and psychoactive component in tobacco, point to action of the drug on the limbic system during maintenance of addiction, either direct or indirect via projections from the ventral tegmental area. The objective of this study was to demonstrate physiological effects of cigarette smoking on the hippocampus and the grey matter of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in the human brain with regard to addiction and withdrawal. This aim was achieved by group comparisons of results of magnetic resonance spectroscopy between non-smokers, smokers and smokers during withdrawal. 12 smokers and 12 non-smokers were measured with single voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy for total N-acetyl aspartate, glutamate and glutamine, choline-containing compounds, myo-inositol and total creatine in the right and the left hippocampus and in the right and the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Smokers were examined twice, first during regular cigarette smoking and second on the third day of nicotine withdrawal. The ratios to total creatine were used for better reliability. In our study, Glx/tCr was significantly increased and tCho/tCr was significantly decreased in the left cingulate cortex in smokers compared to non-smokers (p = 0.01, both). Six out of seven smokers showed normalization of the Glx/tCr in the left cingulate cortex during withdrawal. Although these results are preliminary due to the small sample size, our results confirm the assumption that cigarette smoking interferes directly or indirectly with the glutamate circuit in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by DFG (German Research Foundation) Grant number [TH 500/3-1].

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroradiology, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054, Erlangen, Germany

    Angelika Mennecke, Arnd Dörfler, Julie Rösch & Marc Dölken

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Andrea Gossler, Johannes Kornhuber, Stefan Bleich & Norbert Thürauf

  3. Department of Neurology, Epilepsy Center (ZEE), Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Thilo Hammen

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

    Stefan Bleich

  5. Department of Neurosurgery, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Andreas Stadlbauer

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  1. Angelika Mennecke
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  2. Andrea Gossler
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Correspondence to Angelika Mennecke.

Additional information

M. Doelken and N. Thuerauf contributed equally.

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Mennecke, A., Gossler, A., Hammen, T. et al. Physiological effects of cigarette smoking in the limbic system revealed by 3 tesla magnetic resonance spectroscopy. J Neural Transm 121, 1211–1219 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-014-1190-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-014-1190-6

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