Nicotine reaches the brain in 10 seconds

Cigarette nicotine is transported from the lungs to the brain by blood circulation in about 10 to 15 seconds. It joins the receivers of nicotine in certain areas of the brain, eventually causing dopamine, the neurotransmitter of the "reward," to be released.

This effect seems to be what causes the feeling of satisfaction with smoking , and a smoker quickly learns to associate this sensation with situations and special behaviors that lead them to obtain it again.

If you are in situations where you usually smoke, such as talking on the phone, driving a car, at the bar, among other places, this triggers a sense of expectation for the sensation you want to experience again, and when you open a pack and light a cigarette can produce positive conditioned sensations in the user, even before he has inhaled the smoke in his lungs, indicates the clinical psychologist and director for 10 years of the Tobacco Dependence Program in New York, Dr. Jonathan Foulds for the portal Healthline.com

These processes and some brain regions as it is believed to be the insular cortex or insula, they can cause a person to start developing a nicotine addiction.

A study entitled "The damage in the island interrupts the addiction to smoking cigarettes" published by the magazine Science Magazine, indicates that during an investigation of patients with brain injuries that met certain established criteria, they had left totally or they stopped smoking addiction much faster after damage located specifically in this region of the brain than patients with lesions in other brain regions.


Video Medicine: It only takes 10 seconds for nicotine to reach the brain (March 2024).