Anterior Cingulate Cortex Activity During a Counting Stroop Task Predicts Successful Smoking Cessation
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1
Technical University of Dresden, General Psychology, Germany
Many smokers try to stop smoking. However, only few are successful in their attempts and reach permanent abstinence. Using BOLD-fMRI it is investigated whether the ability to stop smoking is related to behavioral and neural measures of cognitive control. In particular, the hypothesis is tested, whether cognitive control deficits in smokers might be explained by a lack of ACC activation during errors and conflict trials.
Ex-smokers (N = 10, abstinent > 14 weeks, mean > 8.3 years of use) and smokers (N = 10, mean > 7.4 years of use), who continuously fail to stop smoking, were recruited. Cognitive control was measured during fMRI scanning in a modified version of the Counting Stroop task, which required participants to indicate the number of digits displayed on the screen. In congruent trials, the number of digits matched the digits displayed (i.e. "22"), whereas in incongruent trials, there was a mismatch between the number of digits and the digits displayed (i.e. "2222"). Reaction time costs served as an indicator of cognitive interference.
Behavioral results revealed increased Stroop interference in smokers, indicating reduced cognitive control compared to ex-smokers. Furthermore, when contrasting errors with congruent trials, smokers showed less activity than ex-smokers in the rostral ACC, a pattern that was also seen when contrasting incongruent with congruent trials.
These results are in line with the hypothesis that smokers who continuously fail to stop smoking might lack the necessary capacities of cognitive control. Hypoactivation of the ACC in smokers might prevent the signaling of errors and appropriate performance adaptation during conflict, thus offering a neurobiological explanation for the often observed loss of control in addiction. Longitudinal studies are needed to investigate whether those cognitive control deficits contribute to the establishment or maintenance of nicotine addiction, or alternatively, whether they result from chronic nicotine use.
Keywords:
Smoking,
Addiction,
cognitive control,
functional MRI,
anterior cingulate cortex,
counting stroop
Conference:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Cognition and Executive Processes
Citation:
Krönke
K,
Wolff
M,
Benz
A and
Goschke
T
(2015). Anterior Cingulate Cortex Activity During a Counting Stroop Task Predicts Successful Smoking Cessation.
Conference Abstract:
XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00296
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Received:
19 Feb 2015;
Published Online:
24 Apr 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Klaus-Martin Krönke, Technical University of Dresden, General Psychology, Dresden, Germany, klaus-martin.kroenke@tu-dresden.de