People addicted to nicotine fore go the risk of damaging their health and current research also shows, through brain scans, that smoking addiction can also cloud decision making in many aspects of a smoker's life.

A study done at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX by Pearl Chiu and her colleagues at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, analyzed 31 chronic smokers and 31 non-smokers as they played a game inside an fMRI scanner. The players invested money in a simulated stock market over several rounds. After each round, they were given feedback on the returns from their investment choices, including how they might have earned more had they invested differently.

Non-smokers tended to use feedback to figure future rounds of investment, but smokers' behavior was hardly affected. Brain scans revealed that smokers were processing the information but could not act on it to alter their performance (Nature Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1038/nn2067). It is hoped that these findings will help researchers realize brain differences in people who are prone to addiction.

Source: New Scientist magazine, issue 2646, March 8, 2008, page 17

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