by Cesare Peccarisi
There is the first genetic evidence that saying goodbye to cigarettes changes brain circuits for the better. This was clarified on eNeuro by researchers from the Universities of San Diego, Yale and New York
Nicotine withdrawal induces an increase in the functional connectivity of the entire brain and a reduction in the modularity of the nervous network which is activated as a whole without passing through the connections of the various nodes of the circuit like a train that stops at all stations . In fact, although the nodes of the nervous network are interconnected with each other, each one has its own relatively autonomous cognitive function which ends up slowing down the entire network.
From Intercity to Freccia rossa
In this transformation from Intercity into a nervous Red Arrow, the so-called cholinergic neurons play a key role, those that function using the neurotransmitter acetylcholine which, for example, controls voluntary muscles by exciting them, but which also has an inhibitory action in the parasympathetic system involved in internal organs. In fact, it causes a slowdown in the heart rate, but stimulates the secretion of the bronchial, sweat, salivary, gastric and pancreatic glands, increases intestinal peristalsis and digestive functions, so much so that in the end the role of cholinergic neurons in the changes induced by drug abstinence smoke not clear yet.
Extensive connections
Researchers from the Universities of San Diego, Yale and New York directed by Lieselot Carrette have tried to clarify this on eNeuro who have seen how the nerve networks mainly involved are those of the long-range cholinergic type that project onto the forebrain and the brainstem-thalamus, that is, essentially on the whole brain. To find out, they resorted to the Allen Brain database, which contains the expression of 19,413 mouse brain genes. They thus identified 1,795 that would appear to contribute to the reorganization of the functional connectome of the whole brain during nicotine withdrawal.
Abstinence as memory
These are the so-called immediate early genes, in acronym IEGs from the English expression of immediate-early genes such as, for example, the EGR-1, C-FOS and ARC genes which develop in the neurons of the brain regions associated with learning and the formation of the memory and which are already used as neuronal markers of the plastic changes that occur in the formation of long-term memories. We now have the first genetic evidence that quitting cigarettes changes brain circuitry for the better, and that the withdrawal syndrome also results from the desensitization of brain cholinergic receptors to nicotine and the alteration of cholinergic neurotransmission induced by smoking.
August 10, 2023 (change August 10, 2023 | 08:04)
© breaking latest news