Why smokers can't quit easily
Every smoker knows it's tough to kick the habit. In fact, just seeing a photo of someone smoking is enough for would-be quitters to ditch their best intentions and light up "just one more," research now shows.
New brain scans taken during normal smoking activity and 24 hours after quitting show a marked increase in a particular kind of brain activity when quitters see photographs of people smoking, said Joseph McClernon, an associate professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical Center.
The brain area in question turns out to be the dorsal striatum, a region responsible for automaticresponses (such as controlling the movements needed to ride a bike or brush one's teeth), which means that quitting smoking may be out of a person's conscious control, McClernon said.
"Only five percent of unaided quit attempts result in successful abstinence," McClernon said. "Quitting smoking dramatically increases brain activity in response to seeing smoking cues, which seems to indicate that quitting smoking is actually sensitizing the brain to these smoking cues," thus explaining why most smokers who try to quit tend to relapse.
"If we're really going to help people quit, this emphasizes the need to do more than tell people to resist temptation. We also have to help them break that habitualresponse," McClernon said.
The study is detailed online in the journal Psychopharmacology. Further research is focusing on the use of a nicotine patch prior to quitting smoking to break the mental link between cigarettes and nicotine.
每个吸烟者都知道戒烟难。研究表明，实际上，只要看到照片上的人在吸烟，就可以让这些准备戒烟者打破戒烟想法，并再次点燃"最后一支烟"。
杜克大学医学院心理行为学院的副教授约瑟夫.麦克伦说：对正常吸烟中的人以及戒烟24小时的人进行的最新大脑扫描显示，当这些戒烟者看到一组人们在吸烟的照片时，他们的某一大脑活动大大增加。
麦克伦还说，活跃的脑部区域被证明为纹状体，是一个自动响应区域（如同控制骑自行车或刷牙行为），这意味着戒烟可能处于人们有意识控制之外。
然而在解释为何大多数吸烟者想戒烟却总戒不了这个问题时，迈克伦说"只有5%的戒烟者能在无任何帮助的情况下成功克制住自己"。"在看到吸烟提示时，戒烟者的脑部积极响应，极大增加了脑部活动。这似乎表明戒烟实际上是增加对吸烟暗示的敏感性。"
"如果我们真的想帮助人们戒烟，那就强调需要做的而不是告诉他们抗拒诱惑。同时我们还要帮助他们打破习惯性的响应。"麦克伦说。
这项研究详登于"精神心理学"在线杂志。更深层的研究关注于使用尼古丁贴剂，这种戒烟方法比打破对雪茄和尼古丁的精神依赖更有效。
关键字:市民英语
生词表:
Every smoker knows it's tough to kick the habit. In fact, just seeing a photo of someone smoking is enough for would-be quitters to ditch their best intentions and light up "just one more," research now shows.
New brain scans taken during normal smoking activity and 24 hours after quitting show a marked increase in a particular kind of brain activity when quitters see photographs of people smoking, said Joseph McClernon, an associate professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical Center.
The brain area in question turns out to be the dorsal striatum, a region responsible for automaticresponses (such as controlling the movements needed to ride a bike or brush one's teeth), which means that quitting smoking may be out of a person's conscious control, McClernon said.
"Only five percent of unaided quit attempts result in successful abstinence," McClernon said. "Quitting smoking dramatically increases brain activity in response to seeing smoking cues, which seems to indicate that quitting smoking is actually sensitizing the brain to these smoking cues," thus explaining why most smokers who try to quit tend to relapse.
"If we're really going to help people quit, this emphasizes the need to do more than tell people to resist temptation. We also have to help them break that habitualresponse," McClernon said.
The study is detailed online in the journal Psychopharmacology. Further research is focusing on the use of a nicotine patch prior to quitting smoking to break the mental link between cigarettes and nicotine.
每个吸烟者都知道戒烟难。研究表明，实际上，只要看到照片上的人在吸烟，就可以让这些准备戒烟者打破戒烟想法，并再次点燃"最后一支烟"。
杜克大学医学院心理行为学院的副教授约瑟夫.麦克伦说：对正常吸烟中的人以及戒烟24小时的人进行的最新大脑扫描显示，当这些戒烟者看到一组人们在吸烟的照片时，他们的某一大脑活动大大增加。
麦克伦还说，活跃的脑部区域被证明为纹状体，是一个自动响应区域（如同控制骑自行车或刷牙行为），这意味着戒烟可能处于人们有意识控制之外。
然而在解释为何大多数吸烟者想戒烟却总戒不了这个问题时，迈克伦说"只有5%的戒烟者能在无任何帮助的情况下成功克制住自己"。"在看到吸烟提示时，戒烟者的脑部积极响应，极大增加了脑部活动。这似乎表明戒烟实际上是增加对吸烟暗示的敏感性。"
"如果我们真的想帮助人们戒烟，那就强调需要做的而不是告诉他们抗拒诱惑。同时我们还要帮助他们打破习惯性的响应。"麦克伦说。
这项研究详登于"精神心理学"在线杂志。更深层的研究关注于使用尼古丁贴剂，这种戒烟方法比打破对雪茄和尼古丁的精神依赖更有效。
关键字:市民英语
生词表:
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