The brain’s response to personalized quit smoking statements predicts the likelihood of quitting smoking 4 months later, US scientists report in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Hannah Chua and a team from the University of Michigan studied smokers participating in a smoking cessation program. Participants were presented with 3 types of messages – statements: a non-personalized message about their addiction – eg most people quit smoking several times; neutral non-smoking, e.g. wind is moving air; or a personalized statement, e.g. you want to quit now because you are tired of spending money on cigarettes.
Personalized statements encouraged quitting smoking by relating to the smoker’s life, needs, interests, and ways to change smoking. During the presentation of messages, the brains of smokers were imaged using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
It turned out that during the presentation of statements in the brain of smokers, the prefrontal cortex of the brain is activated – an active region also when thinking about yourself. The researchers found that the degree of activation of this part of the brain under the influence of the presented messages was related to the likelihood of quitting smoking four months later. (PAP)