Smoking modifies the brains of young people

In the period from adolescence to early adulthood, the brain continues to develop, and it is precisely the stage that coincides with the age group that most often smokes. The effects on the physical development of the brain of young adults have been exposed in the latest study from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology .

The key to reaching this conclusion was found in the insula, a part of the cerebral cortex located deep on the lateral surface of the brain and which is involved in feelings and decision-making related to them (pain, hatred, fear, happiness sadness…). The fact that the research has focused on this specific part of the brain is given because the insula plays a very important role in sustaining tobacco dependence .

After examining the histories and this particular brain area of 42 participants between the ages of 16 and 22, the researchers found that the cortical thickness of the insula of smokers was much thinner than that of non-smokers. And not only that: the more cigarettes per day the subject smoked, the thinner that thickness was.

The results of the study conclude that young smokers can experience certain changes in the structure of the brain and that this modification not only happens with young people who have smoked for a long period of time, but also with those who have done so recently. .

The study suggests that the neurobiological changes that occur from smoking during this critical developmental period could explain why adults who started smoking at an early age were ultimately hooked on tobacco throughout their lives.