“Man becomes cigarette smoker. Man suffers from stroke. Man completely loses urge to smoke.”

This sums up the neon lights that have been blinking nonstop in the media around the scientific paper, “Damage to the Insula Disrupts Addiction to Cigarette Smoking” that was published in the January 26, 2007 issue of Science magazine (pages 531-534). The magazine also ran a commentary, “Brain Damage Sheds Light on Urge to Smoke” on the paper.

The key? A brain region called the insular cortext, or insula, deep within the cerebral cortex. This region has been implicated in other addictions, including cocaine addiction. Signals that trigger this region has been linked to the stimulation of addictive desires. This means insula is a potential therapeutic target – in other words – drugs or treatments that affect insula’s ability to stimulate addictive desires become a therapy for addiction. Continue reading →