Can Nicotine Really Change My Brain?

Corey and James are Juniors in high school… Corey is a smoker, but James doesn’t smoke. Their school nurse just announced that the local medical center is conducting a study on adolescent smokers to determine if Nicotine, the main active ingredient in tobacco, can change the brain. Brain changes occur in the adult, but similar studies in adolescents are still lacking. The nurse mentioned that volunteers (both smokers and non-smokers) would receive $200 for participating in the study, so Corey and James decided to sign up.

When they got to the clinic, the research doctor in charge of the study told them that the study required getting a brain scan, called a PET scan (it wouldn’t hurt, and it’s not a dog scan!). The doctor told the boys that the PET scan of the brain shows the amount of specific proteins in brain cells to which drugs can attach. In this case, these proteins are called nicotine receptors, because nicotine binds to them, affecting the function of cells on which they reside. The scientists will look at the scans to compare the amount of nicotine receptors in Corey and James’s brain.

So, here’s what happened. Take a look at Corey and James’s brain scans.

The blue areas show the lowest amount of nicotine receptors and the red areas show the highest amount of nicotine receptors. Can you tell the difference between the 2 boys? Corey, the smoker, has a lot more nicotine receptors in certain parts of his brain than does James. The same thing happens in adults–it’s not a coincidence. So, how does something like this happen? And what are the consequences? To answer these questions, it will require some detective work on your part.

First, you’ll need some background about the boys. Corey started smoking when he was 12 because his older brother Jeff (age 15) would sneak cigarettes behind the house. Corey and his friend James decided to try Jeff’s stash one day when he wasn’t around. The first puff was horrible – both Corey and James gagged and coughed. Corey finished smoking the cigarette because he thought it was “cool”, but James didn’t like it and didn’t smoke any more.

Corey continued sneaking cigarettes from his brother when he could, but eventually he started wanting to smoke more often. When he didn’t have a cigarette, Corey was a little anxious, but that went away after he smoked. It wasn’t long before Corey realized he was “hooked”… he thought he could stop smoking any time, but he was never able to actually do it. So, you might not be surprised that Corey was interested in getting the PET scan to see if something was happening in his brain.

Your first “mission” is to become an expert about nicotine and the process of Addiction. This becomes important later on as you’ll see in the next module. Consult the Module 1 guide to answer the questions for Mission #1.