Quitting cigarette smoking gives rise to a broad range of signs and symptoms including the disruption of cognitive, emotional and behavioral processes. Previous work demonstrates that each of these signs and symptoms has a unique trajectory-varying in both severity and duration-which suggests that each is under the control of different neural systems. Our current work seeks to evaluate the neural basis of the effects of smoking withdrawal on processes including attention, working memory, craving, conditioned drug-cue reactivity, response inhibition and decision making. Functional neuroimaging and pharmacological challenges are used in this research.

Representative publications:

McClernon, F. J., Hiott, F. B., Huettel, S. A., & Rose, J. E. (2005). Abstinence-induced changes in self-report craving correlate with event-related fMRI responses to smoking cues. Neuropsychopharmacology, 30, 1940-1947.

Gilbert, D. G., McClernon, F. J., Rabinovich, N. E., Sugai, C., Plath, L. C., Asgaard, G., Zuo, Y., Huggenvik, J., & Botros, N. (2004). Effects of quitting smoking on EEG activation and attention last for more than 31 days and are more severe with stress, dependence, DRD2 A1 allele, and depressive traits. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 6, 249-267.