Smoking

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Read this article on smoking and the brain: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marina-picciotto/smoking-in-movies-think-smoking-looks_b_810561.html

Summarize the article. What are your thoughts on this piece? What is most interesting to you? Choose one aspect of the article that you want to learn more about and find out some more information about that. What did you learn? How does your understanding of concepts from chapter 3 help you understand this article? What does all this information teach you about the motivation to quit smoking?

Provide a list of proper M&E terms that you used in your blog post.

Photo credit: smoking and sad girlby *hidlight (http://hidlight.deviantart.com)

48 Comments

This is a great article. In summary, it stated that smoking is a bad habit and I believe it always will be as long as it's legal in the U.S. The article also talked about how smoking has become so popular in movies, portraying the wrong message and being looked at as "cool" that now kids are wanting to do what the actors do and it's even provoking ex-smokers to want to start smoking again.

I think this ties in with chapter 1 on how motivation is learned through different aspects and the social context/media is definitely one. Kids are being motivated to smoke because they're watching their role-models (parents, actors, older adults) smoke which makes them think it's the right thing or even "cool thing" to do. It also ties in with chapter 3 because the orbitofrontal cortex is the brain structure that processes information that helps people make choices. It also states that this part of the brain is active when people consider their options. In this case, people are choosing to smoke even though they know it's bad for you, and therefore become addicted to it the more they use.

Once someone is addicted to smoking or almost any drug, it's not only the matter of trying to stop mentally, but it becomes harder because of whats going on inside the brain. The nucleus accumbens is active because it plays a critical role in the experience of pleasure from naturally occuring reinforcers and drugs that contribute to addictions.

The article also stated that people are addicted to smoking because of the nicotine it contains. If someone is addicted to smoking, I'm assuming the sight of a cigarette, the smell, and even similar tastes trigger it that much more. The limbic system has a big part in this area because it receives incoming sensory stimulation that activates automatic reactions.

It's interesting to think about how one can be motivated to start smoking and once addicted, it's even harder to become motivated to stop. My dad use to be addicted to smoking and it took him will power and a certain kind of motivation which was probably triggered by us. He didn't want us to think smoking was okay and it took him a while to go off of it, but he is currently 10 years smoke-free.


Obviously people know smoking is bad but some still choose to do it because their motivation may be low, and also because the different areas of the brain is making it more difficult. It's like exercising and eating healthy though when someone is overweight. We all know exercising is healthy and will make you lose weight if you do it often and eat healthier too, but some people just aren't motivated for it. Motivation is complicated but can be rewarding.

One aspect of the article I would like to learn more about is understanding the therapies to recovery for smokers, and which recovery or therapy works the best or even so, why they don't work. This article helps me realize that most of the time motivation can be difficult especially when different parts of our brain are controlling most of our motivation and behavior but It's interesting learning about all of it.

Terms-orbitofrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, reinforcers, limbic system

It shocks me how often smoking was (and to a certain extent still is) portrayed as hip and cool in TV shows and movies. Why? Why is it that filmmakers do that when they know the dangers of smoking? If they can make smoking look cool why not make something healthier appear just as cool? But why filmmakers do this is not the point of this blog I guess. Perhaps a more appropriate question is: why does viewing smoking in a film make people want to smoke?...specifically, why might it cause past smokers to relapse? This Huffington Post article was interested in knowing the brain mechanisms involved in leading past smokers to have a desire to take up a cigarette and begin smoking again. The author examined a research article that explained why ex-smokers might break down and begin smoking again after just watching someone smoke in a movie. The Huffington Post article spent a good chunk of time reminding the reader about many of the negative facts about smoking (however I was shocked to find out that more people die from smoking than so many other things combined!). Not much detail was given about the research article itself.
Although the author didn’t lay out many specifics about the research article, after reading chapter 3 I feel fairly confident that I can make a few educated guesses on why an ex-smoker may be drawn to smoke a cigarette just as a person may be motivated to eat a cookie once they have been enticed by the tantalizing aroma of cookies baking in the oven. Many areas of the brain are associated with reinforcement and pleasure. Smoking taps into these pleasure centers in the brain. It’s also a reinforced behavior. Smoking is bad for you. Like the article said, how doesn’t know that? Well, there are the CEOs of the tobacco companies, but they don’t count. They have motivation to disagree with the accepted scientific findings. Anyway, so if smoking is bad, why do so many people smoke? The motivation to smoke must be greater than the motivation to not smoke. Well, yes, I think people understand that too. What is the motivation to smoke after simply watching someone do it then?
The medial forebrain bundle is an area of the brain that connects the hypothalamus with many other areas within the brain. It is thought of as a “pleasure center” of the brain. When the medial forebrain bundle is stimulated in humans, a positive affect is produced. If an activity or anything really were to stimulate the medial forebrain, then that thing will likely be regarded in a positive light. Perhaps smokers receive stimulation in their medial forebrain bundle and therefore seek out cigarettes in order to achieve that positive feeling. Watching a person smoke in a movie may remind past smokers of that good feeling and give them the desire to smoke.
Within the Septo-Hippocampal circuit lays the nucleus accumbens. First of all, the Septo-Hippocampal circuit is a circuit of many interconnected parts within the brain. The nucleus accumbens is a part of the Septo-Hippocampal circuit and is also a part of the limbic system (a region in the brain that is known for its ties with emotional experience). The nucleus accumbens plays a part in the experience of pleasure from many things including drugs. Once nicotine reaches the brain and travels to the nucleus accumbens, it may be seen as a nice and pleasant thing. Therefore, your brain will want more and try to convince you to have more.
The final thing I am going to mention is the affects of Dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter (which is a chemical that basically tells the brain certain things to do). It is associated both with the experience of pleasure and the reinforcement of certain pleasure producing behaviors. Smoking for instance may cause the release of dopamine which can lead to a pleasurable experience and also lead to reinforcement. Watching someone smoke may be an incentive for a past smoker to want to smoke. I.e. watching someone smoke may lead to an ex-smoker feeling a longing for the pleasure producing affects of nicotine. The book mentions that dopamine is released prior to the actual pleasure producing event. During the “wanting” stage. An ex-smoker sees someone smoking on TV and wants a cigarette because dopamine is being released in their brain…urging them to smoke. Even if the experience of smoking itself is not “liked”, a person may still choose to smoke because of the dopamine released when they watch another person take a drag. Quitting smoking would be tough. Just like many facets of motivation, so much plays into the motivation to smoke.
There are a lot of things that contribute to the addictive nature of smoking, yet sometimes people deny that smoking is addictive. Take, for instance, the seven CEOs mentioned in the Huffington Post article. I was interested in finding out how they actually denied the fact that nicotine is addictive and so I did a little searching. Here is what I found: http://senate.ucsf.edu/tobacco/executives1994congress.html. This site shows what each CEO said when asked the yes/no question: is smoking addictive…just ridiculous.

Terms: medial forebrain bundle, Septo-Hippocampal circuit, nucleus accumbens, limbic system, dopamine, neurotransmitter, incentive, wanting, liking

This article focused on a new study discussing how smoking viewed in movies can trigger brain areas that are linked to addiction in humans. Researchers are saying that watching movies where the actor/actresses are smoking can activate brain areas that can cause someone to want to smoke. They say this is because the physical habit of smoking is a learned behavior that just simply seeing people smoking can make others want to grab a cigarette and take a puff. Along with the statistical health facts about how smoking is extremely unhealthy for the human body, the article also discusses how smoking in movies can be targeted at young viewers (children) and it is setting bad examples for our youth today.
I thought this was a very interesting article. I was very intrigued by what the authors had to say about the influence of smoking in movies on the greater public. I feel like it has been in the news for years that smoking in the media has an effect on the youth of America and is targeted towards the younger population. One thing that did come to a shock to me was how the authors are saying that smoking in movies leaves an impression on adults as well as children and can bring up the urge in people who had once quit smoking to want to start smoking again. I looked up different articles to find out more about how viewing the act of smoking could cause someone who once smoked but quit want to start smoking again. What I found was that media can affect adults and their choice to either smoke or not smoke. In the article The Effects of Smoking-Related Television Advertising on Smoking and Intentions to Quit Among Adults in the United States:, the authors discussed that after testing adults on wither or not the use of anti smoking media caused an increase in the amount of people who quit smoking, showed that media did influence their choice to either continue smoking or to quit smoking, showing how much of an impact media can have on our motivation to partake in a behavior.
Chapter three of our text book explains anatomically how and why we are motivated to do what we do. The book discussed how different parts of the brain trigger and respond to different motives. One thing that stuck out to me in relation to the article from the book was the discussion and explanation of dopamine. Dopamine is a hormone in the brain that releases good feelings in the human body and can cause us to seek out activities to experience the release of dopamine over and over again. Dopamine teaches us what is rewarding in our surrounding environment. When it comes to addictive behavior such as smoking, a dopamine rush can be induced in the brain and the need to fulfill that dopamine rush can last for years and years making it hard to quit smoking even when the liking of smoking is no longer present, the want of smoking still is. The understanding of this concept from the text book helped me to relate to the web article and helped with a better understanding of what the web article authors were trying to get across, especially when they discussed how simply seeing someone smoke on the big screen can trigger the brain causing someone who hasn’t smoked in years to want to pick up a pack.
From the information presented in both the text book and the online article, I have learned that the motivation to quit smoking can be present in the human mind, but the biological will to follow through with the act to quit smoking and change the behavior can be very hard to overcome due to the need to fulfill the simulation that was once received from smoking and the impressions of the world around us.
Terms-dopamine
Outside Sources: The effects of smoking-related television advertising on smoking and intentions to quit among adults in the united states: 1999-2007. American Journal of Public Health

The article talks about a couple different reasons why smokers have a difficult time quitting, and also why it is so easy for them to relapse. In addition to the addictive qualities of nicotine, the repetitive movements that smokers make when they lift a cigarette to their mouths cause certain areas of the brain to become activated. When smokers and ex-smokers see others smoke – both in real life and in movies or the media – the area of the brain responsible for the repetitive movements is activated, and their desire for a cigarette increases. The article lists different types of therapy used by people who are trying to quit smoking. The author sums up the piece by saying that we have a long way to go before we will know how to help smokers who want to quit (since 50% relapse within a year), and re-emphasizes that it is our body’s reaction to nicotine combined with our brain’s activated areas when we see others smoke that makes smoking so difficult to quit.

I thought that the piece had a lot of interesting information. I always thought that nicotine was the biggest factor in relapse, so the idea that the brain areas involved in smoking-related movements also contribute to relapse is the most interesting part of the article for me. I also liked the part that explained why movies generally no longer have characters who smoke. I thought that it was simply because smoking is a health hazard, and Hollywood did not want to promote it; I never considered that watching others smoke in the media would cause ex-smokers to pick up the habit again.

I decided to find out if there are any smoking help lines (“quitlines”) in Iowa, and it turns out that there are. While I was on the quitline website, I read the “what’s new” section. I learned from that section that nicotine is a stimulant, so it increases heart rate and blood pressure; those who smoke to “relieve stress” do not realize that smoking a cigarette actually places more stress on their body! The section said that the calm feeling associated with smoking is actually the result of the deep breathing involved when dragging from the cigarette, and it then gave an exercise for smokers to try in order to breathe deeply and calm down without using a cigarette. By simply clicking onto the homepage of the quitline website, smokers have a great resource if they are trying to quit; they may not even have to talk to anyone on the quitline!

Chapter 3 discussed a number of different brain structures associated with motivation and emotion, and a number of them are related to addictions. One structure – the septo-hippocampal circuit – monitors the nucleus accumbens, which allows us to experience pleasure from natural reinforcers and addictive drugs. The book says that the nucleus accumbens “generates a ‘liking’ reaction” to the reinforcers and drugs, which would then cause us to repeat whatever action we are doing when the nucleus accumbens is activated. This means that smokers will continue to smoke because their nucleus accumbens tells them that they like it. The brain also has a number of neurotransmitter pathways, which send neurotransmitters (chemical messages) from one neuron to the next. One of the neurotransmitters – dopamine – generates good feelings. Addictive drugs tend to sensitize the brain and its structures to dopamine, and this hyper-sensitization can last for years. This helps to explain why so many smokers relapse so easily; even though they may not have had a cigarette for months, their brain and its structures are still very sensitive to the good feelings that result from nicotine intake.

What all of this means is that there are more side-effects involved in quitting smoking than simply nicotine withdrawal. In addition to the withdrawal, smokers also have to battle the unconscious pathways in their brain that tell them that cigarettes are good, and the regions of the brain that have learned, remember and crave the repetitive movements involved in smoking (especially when they see others doing it).

Terms: septo-hippocampal circuit, nucleus accumbens, neurotransmitter, dopamine

The American Lung Association and the Cancer Center for Disease Control and Prevention have asked movie productions to stop smoking in movies. It is sending the wrong message to children. They are portraying that smoking is cool which may lead to the increase in kids smoking. This new study released states that our bodies’ combined response to the content of cigarette smoke and the physical act of smoking leads to changes in brain activity that can drive the urge to smoke. I feel that this information alone should be enough to pursue a ban on smoking in movies and television series.

I found it interesting that tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death with 443,000 deaths just in the United States alone. 20% of adults smoke and 50% try and quit each year but less than 5% succeed. This makes me even more curious about motivation and what causes our desires. Everyone knows smoking is bad for you and addictive so why start in the first place? It’s just like I tell myself I will only have one piece of candy. That never works out and before I know it, the package is empty. It takes a lot will power to say no. I was surprised to learn that smoking prevents wounds from healing. That would make sense in under developed countries where the smoking rate is extremely high as well as disease.

For my outside research I looked into banning smoking in movies a little closer and came to find that tobacco use is portrayed more often in movies aimed at kids according to the CDC. In 2009, more than half of the 145 movies the CDC looked at showed tobacco use. I find that information fascinating and disturbing! Why would movie producers allow actors to portray smoking in their movies let alone in more kid’s movies than adult movies? That’s wrong! I did find that portraying smoking in movies has decreased in recent years, which is a good start. I still think it needs to be banned completely! Within the last couple years more and more cities are banning smoking in public areas; it’s interesting to see tobacco use still popping up on the movie screen.

This article ties in with the book because chapter 3 talks about how different parts of the brain trigger and respond to different motives. The orbitofrontal cortex helps people consider their options. Each person makes their own decisions on what they’re going or not going to do.

Terms: orbitofrontal cortex, dopamine, limbic system

This article explains very well how people can be motivated to either start smoking for the first time or to continue their smoking habits. Movies play a big role in motivating smokers to start up their bad habits again after seeing a smoking scene. The physical habits of smoking are triggered during these types of scenes. This article also states smoking can prevent people from healing after having surgery, making smoking a habit that is even more deadly when sick. Even though most people know smoking is bad for them, many do not admit that is addictive. The major tobacco company CEO's are some of the people who do not think of nicotine as addictive. Many people stay in denial of how bad smoking can actually be.

I believe this article does a wonderful job of explaining the addictive side of smoking. So many people think it is so easy to quit when it is actually more difficult to motivate oneself to stop the physical and mental parts of smoking. In Chapter 3 of our textbooks, it states that the nucleus accumbens is the part of the septo-hippocampal circuit of the brain that makes people experience pleasure from things such as drugs. This part of the brain is what makes it so hard to just stop smoking. As the article states, twenty percent of adults in the United States are smokers, but only five percent are able to quit. They usually are only able to stop after having some form of behavioral therapy to help beat the pleasure coming from the brain. Chapter 3 also states that the Neurotransmitter called Dopamine is released when the mind is rewarded, usually by pleasure. Smoking can be that form of pleasure that releases the feel good transmitter of dopamine. This makes it more difficult to quit smoking also. Once a person is addicted to nicotine a process called dopamine induced neural hypersenitization can occur. This is when dopamine is released at a greater amount than normal because the nucleus accumben becomes sensitive from the drug use.

One part of this article that I found very interesting was that smoking can actually cause wounds to not heal correctly or at all. This usually is the case when a smoker has surgery and then does not heal correctly after. I looked into this more and found on livestrong.com that this happens because smoking diminishes blood supply to the wound by nicotine constricting the blood vessels. This can be very dangerous and many smokers are not able to get the surgery that they need due to them not being able to heal afterwards.

All of this information has taught me that quitting smoking is not as easy as it seems. It is the psychological side of the habit that takes the longest to stop and many peole do not try to get help from a therapist to stop. I also learned that there are many motives for smokers to continue smoking and some are difficult to even know are happening, like when a smoker watches a smoking scene in a movie. That person probably does not even know it is motivating them to contiue their smoking habits. This whole article was very informative on a topic that I did not know much about in the first place.

Terms: nucleus accumbens, septo-hippocampal circuit, neurotransmitter, dopamine, dopamine induced neural hypersenitization.

This article basically discussed the neurological activities surrounding the addictive properties of nicotine and smoking. The focus of the article was a new study from The Journal of Neuroscience that found that a huge part of smokings addiction is due to the fact that our brains become attached to the physical habit of "reaching for a cigarette & moving it up for a drag." So not only does craving for a cigarette come from the addictive properties of nicotine, but also in large part from the simple movement of actually placing a cigarette in your mouth. It is because of this that movies portraying smokers are in a large part unhelpful to former smokers or those actively trying to quit. In addition the article discusses the health dangers of smoking, and some possible solutions to quit smoking, however acknowledges that quitting is very difficult, and as little as 5% of smokers successfully quit each year.

I found this piece very interesting. I was so surprised to hear many of the statistics behind how unsuccessful most people were who attempted to quit. Obviously I was aware of the addictive properties of nicotine, but before this article had not realized how many other MAJOR factors there are that make quitting difficult.

I decided to look further into the argument to ban smoking in movies. I found that some people believe that if an actor smokes in a movie, it should receive an automatic R rating (or NC-17), due to the fact that several studies have found an correlation between exposure to smoking in movies and adolescents who have tried smoking. However the point I find the most fascinating (not to mention extreme & in some cases ludicrous) is that people are beginning to not only call for a ban on cigarette use, but also other products that are 'harmful to the public' such as gun use and the consumption of trans fat in movies. Many people within the industry are opposed to such extreme measures, because of the impact it will have on their 'storytelling' as many put it.

Chapter three talks about the orbitofrontal cortex, which essentially controls reinforcements and decision-making. Obviously this comes into play when studying why people continue to smoke. The individuals receive pleasurable reinforcements of dopamine from the brain, so they continue the harmful behavior simply because it makes them feel good. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which is essential in reward-driven learning. It is because of this pleasurable reward that many people find it so difficult to quit harmful habits such as smoking. Smoking releases dopamine, and it is because of the pleasure form dopamine, that the brain continues to seek that pleasure, and repeat the habit.

This obviously makes it very easy to understand why individuals find it hard to quit smoking. Not only do their bodies desire the addictive nicotine, but also the dopamine that is released with the act of smoking. That pleasure is hard to not desire, and when simply seeing someone smoke in a movie reminds you how wonderful that sensation is, the individual is constantly surrounded by the temptation to smoke.

Terms: orbitofrontal cortex, dopamine

This article is about how the American Lung Association and the Center for Disease Control Prevention have put an end to actors smoking in movies. They did so because there are been studies that the simple act of seeing someone smoke on screen can coax one to pick up smoking, or if one has already quit smoking, it will entice them to start again. Specifically young children are a target population that the CDCP and ALA are trying to keep from seeing actors smoking on screen. In the movies they often make smoking seem "cool", and this is not a message we want to be sending to our children. The article also states some very disturbing statistics on how many people die from smoking, on average, a year (about 443,000).

The most surprising/interesting part of this article was that in 1994 7 tobacco company representatives testified before congress that "nicotine is not addictive." At first I thought that, well yeah, the tobacco companies will say anything to keep their business a float. I watched several Youtube clips of different tobacco company representative saying that tobacco is not bad for you and that nicotine is not addictive. I learned in one of these Youtube clips of what exactly is in cigarettes and it's simply gross. 30% of it is Recon, which is basically scraps they pick up from the factory floors from waste that has accumulated, 20% is expanded tobacco, stems and reclaim, and 50% is treated tobacco that has been treated with sugars to get rid of the bitter taste.

Chapter three talks a lot about dopamine, which is an organic chemical (or neurotransmitter: a chemical messenger within the central nervous system) in the brain that generates good feelings when one is at face with reward. The feeling of "wanting" something is partly generated by dopamine levels. As well as releasing dopamine to generate positive feelings, it also releases via the nucleas accumbens, which is a part of the brain that motivates one towards a goal oriented behavior. This, specifically helps us understand (brain-wise) why people can become so addicted to smoking, the act of smoking, or even seeing someone smoking. When someone sees a cigarette, their body releases dopamine through the nucleas accumbens and gives them the feeling that they "need" that cigarette.

The motivation to quit smoking will have to outweigh the motivation to smoke. I would think tricking the mind would be a good way to help with ones nucleas accumbens. The simple act of smoking can release dopamine levels. Therefore, if one is trying to quit, they can simply "smoke" a plastic straw. The motion of smoking can still be used, and you are somewhat tricking your brain without getting the bad nicotine in your system. (My grandmother did this technique at a very old age and quit smoking). Also, one can find other ways to get that "dopamine kick". I believe that the stand to keeping smoking out of the movies is an absolute great idea. We can never truely kick an old habit, but making new ones can really help!

Terms: Dopamine, neurotransmitters, nucleas accumbens.

To summarize this article, The American Lung Association and the Cancer Center for Disease Control and Prevention have called for a stop to smoking in movies. In a new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience it turns out that watching movies where actors or actresses smoke activates brain areas that drive the body movements a smoker makes hundreds of times a day while smoking a cigarette. Watching people smoke in the movies makes brain areas responsible for those movements more active, which then could contribute to relapse. The American Lung Association and the Cancer Center for Disease Control and Prevention argue that movies make smoking look cool therefore increasing the likelihood that kids will start smoking. They also argue that smoking in movies leads ex-smokers to start smoking again because watching smoking may activate brain areas linked to the physical habits of smoking.
I thought this article was very interesting. It still shocks me that smoking is still portrayed as cool in the media. In the article it says that smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in most countries and causes about 443,000 deaths per year in the United States alone. That's more deaths each year than AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined. People know that smoking is addictive so what motivates people to start smoking?
In chapter 3 I learned how different brain structures can affect a person’s motivation to smoking. The medial forebrain bundle is a large collection of pathway-like fibers that connect the hypothalamus to other limbic structures. It can be called the “pleasure center.” When the medial forebrain bundle is stimulated it gives a person positive feelings. I imagine when a person smokes a cigarette it stimulates this area of the brain and gives that person positive feelings making that person want to smoke again.
Dopamine also generates positive feelings. Throughout the day, some level of dopamine is in the brain. When people experience different events, those that signal a reward and the anticipation of pleasure trigger neurons in the dopamine pathway to release dopamine into the synapses. Dopamine release triggers positive feelings and can enhance creativity. Smoking a cigarette releases dopamine into a person’s system making the person feel good. People get addicted to that feeling and smoke throughout the day to keep that feeling.
Another structure chapter 3 talks about is the orbitofrontal cortex. The orbitofrontal cortex is the brain structure that processes information that helps people make choices between options. This structure helps people make the choice between not smoking or smoking.
After reading chapter 3 and the article I wanted to learn more different therapies a person could do to help them with their smoking addiction. I was really surprised to learn that acupuncture is being done now to help people overcome their addiction. The best-known acupuncture treatment for smoking cessation is the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association protocol. The NADA protocol consists of five acupuncture points in each ear: Shen Men, Sympathetic, Kidney, Liver, and Lung. When the needle is placed on those areas of the ear it reduces anxiety and calms the nervous system, addresses deep-seeded psychological imbalances, ensures smooth flow throughout the body, and correlates to the organ most directly involved in smoking. The problem with the NADA protocol is that most insurance companies don’t cover this procedure and it can be pricey.
These articles and chapter three helped me understand why people feel motivated to start smoking and also why it is so hard to stop smoking.

Terms: Medial forebrain bundle, orbitofrontal cortex, dopamine.

This article discussed the links between movies and relapse among smokers. According to the article, smokers tend to associate smoking in movies to the actual physical movements of picking up a cigarette and taking a drag. The same areas of the brain responsible for these movements are active when watching the movie. This association may cause an ex-smoker to relapse.
In addition to the link between movies and relapse rates among smokers, the article also discussed the amount of smokers who try to quit smoking each year and the percentage of those smokers who are successful.
A piece of information I found to be interesting in the article was that smoking prevents wounds from healing. When I did some research, I found out that the reason smoking prevents healing is because it causes your blood vessels to become smaller therefore making it more difficult for oxygen and essential nutrients to reach the wound. In addition, the carbon monoxide in the cigarettes lowers oxygen levels as well, thus slowing down the healing process. I also read that even if you are just an occasional smoker, your healing may still be affected. It takes 3 whole days of non-smoking for the oxygen to return to it's proper levels.
The medial forebrain bundle might be involved in the process of smoking. It is, after all, the brain's "pleasure center" according to Chapter 3. If smoking stimulates the medial forebrain bundle and creates positive feelings, then we can begin to understand why smokers keep smoking. In addition, the septo-hippocampal circuit may also be involved in the process of smoking. This circuit too plays a role in feeling pleasure. When an individual experiences feelings of anxiety, the endorphins released by smoking may shut down the circuit and give rise to feelings of calmness and positive feelings. This may explain why smokers tend to smoke more when they are feeling stressed.
Another aspect from chapter 3 that we can tie in with smoking is the section on neurotransmitters. More specifically, we can link dopamine to smoking. Smoking releases dopamine into the synapses thus giving the individual positive feelings. Moreover, more dopamine may be released even at the thought of a cigarette because of the anticipation of the positive feelings. This may explain why smokers who watch other people smoke (in movies) may relapse so easily. The very thought of smoking releases dopamine into their synapses and produces pleasure. The link between dopamine and motivated action is also discussed in this section of chapter 3. Basically, dopamine is associated with a goal-directed approach response in addition to the feelings of pleasure. In other words, the release of dopamine helps motivate the individual to actively seek out the reward. Hence the reason why smokers actively seek out a cigarette.
What all this teaches me about the motivation to quit smoking is that it is more biologically based than I thought. A lot of brain mechanisms and neurotransmitters are involved in the process of smoking making it much harder to quit. With the pleasure and rewarding feelings it presents, who wouldn't want to quit smoking? With the right combination of therapies, however, some smokers still have a chance to quit.

Terms: neurotransmitters, dopamine, septo-hippocampal circuit, medial forebrain bundle

Website used for smoking and healing: (8/19/2011). Smoking and Wound Healing: A Guide for Surgical and Burn Patients. UW Health. Retrieve 9/3/2012 from http://www.uwhealth.org/healthfacts/B_EXTRANET_HEALTH_INFORMATION-FlexMember-Show_Public_HFFY_1117547770797.html

This article is very informative. Its basic focus is on how smoking is a bad habit and that it’s tough to quit. It also does not help that the media plays a huge role in making it tough for people. Many movies have smoking involved in them and this causes people to want to grab a smoke. Not only for smokers, but kids see it in movies because the actors portray it off as “cool,” therefore, they want to go try it. This happens because smoking is a habit that is physical, and so it becomes a learned behavior simply by visual aid.

Something I thought was very interesting was the statistics in the article. Especially, half of U.S. adults try to quit smoking each year, but less than 5 percent succeed. This is astounding to me. To think half, at least, try to quit smoking is a great thought. But then when you see the success rate, it just is awful to see. It just shows that people truly do understand that this is an awful habit to get into and it is not good for their bodies. Why else would half the people try quitting? Smoking just shows how the power of addiction can take a toll on a person’s life when no one’s able to quit. The other stat was smoking is the leading preventable cause of death. More people die each year than AIDS, drug use, alcohol use, etc… Nearly half a million year die from smoking. That’s crazy.

An aspect I’d like to grasp a better understanding from the article is why is it so addictive? I recognize nicotine plays a major role and even the article states that. But, for me, the factors and possible health issues that come with smoking are just not worth it to smoke. Everyone knows it’s bad, yet millions do it. I understand that when someone is addicted, their senses of anything correlated with smoking triggers when cigarettes are around. This is hugely related to the limbic system. This is where our minds receive incoming sensory stimulation which activates automatic reactions. Hopefully someday, researchers figure out a way to make smokers quit at a more successful rate and it could then lead into a much better society without the polluted air.

After reading chapter 3 you get an idea on how the article ties in with the chapter. One of the relations between the two is you start to understand why an ex-smoker would start up again. Like I mentioned before, our senses are a powerful tool and when an ex-smoker smells the scent of a cigarette, it’s tough for them not to be drawn to it. This is what the brain does; it reinforces a lot of information. Unfortunately in this circumstance, it’s trying to draw you back to a bad habit. This becomes a reinforced behavior. Also in the chapter, it explains how and why we are motivated to do what we do. The common term that was discussed in both the article and book was dopamine. Dopamine releases good feelings in the human body and can cause us to encounter in events that may have high anticipation. This is exactly what happens for smokers. They get the “body rush” to want to put a cigarette in their mouth, so they can get the satisfaction of the nicotine. Understanding dopamine makes it clearer on smokers and their behaviors.

To understand the motivation behind a smoker’s behavior is to grab the many different factors that play a role. Researchers have to figure out brain behavior and why they make certain decisions. The brain has many different structures, in which, each structure is associated with some sort of motivation or emotional experience. Examples: hypothalamus (pleasurable feelings associated with feeding, drinking, mating), septal area (pleasure center associated with sociability, sexuality), hippocampus (behavioral inhibition system during unexpected events) are just a few to name. A researcher must expertise every little thing imaginable in the brain to understand what motivates us. They have to recognize the media and the role they play. All of these are variables that have to be taken into consideration to understand the motivation behind it. And this does not even include the research after (one) is addicted to smoking.

Key terms – limbic system, dopamine, reinforcers, hypothalamus, septal area, hippocampus

1. There are two main topics in this article. First, people who smoke activate their brain parts of addiction and motor skill when they see others smoke. Second, smoking is very addictive as more than half of ex-smokers resume smoking within a year.

2. I thought this piece is relatively short. Nevertheless, the amount of links provided within the text is quite abundant. This feature allows readers to look up more references.

3. I am also surprised by the fact that smoking undermines the healing process in the body. This finding reminds me of my grandparents. They had some health issues during the final years of their lives. I wonder if they could have been more comfortable if they did not smoke.

4. I followed the link to CDC and read more about the causes of death related to smoking. The third highest number of cases, after cancer and heart disease, is chronic airway obstruction. That name sounds really bad. I can't imagine how life could be if you wake up everyday and feel that you can't breath. That must be unpleasant.

5. The textbook describes the addiction pathway of human brain. One of the neurotransmitters that provides pleasure is dopamine. The release of dopamine stimulates several parts of the brain. Nicotine then intensifies the effect of dopamine in the nervous system and thus makes people "hyper."

6. According to the descriptions of nicotine in the textbook and the article, will power alone is quite insufficient to fight such a fundamental mechanism inside the body. If we want more people to quit smoking, we need to find better methods that adopt this biological pathway of pleasure.

Terms: addiction, dopamine

Personally, I found this article very interesting. I knew that smoking in movies was proposed a hazard to children picking up smoking however, I had never thought of watching someone smoke in a movie as a trigger for an ex-smoker to pick up a cigarette. This proved to be the most interesting to me, that just watching someone smoke in a movie will cause someone who has not smoked in a while, to start smoking once again. Social media is too influential!

In summary, this article states that visual cues of smoking cause a neurotransmitter to release chemicals in the brain that motivate people to smoke (either for the first time, or again). Whether the act of smoking is portrayed as cool or socially acceptable, it still contributes to people picking up a cigarette for the first time or even returning to smoking after quitting. Smoking is unhealthy and the willpower to quit can be partially determined by how it is displayed (or if it is displayed) in social media. The article stated that smoking is the “most preventable cause of death in most countries” and causes about 443,000 deaths a year. However common smoking is, multiple therapies only have a 50% recovery rate for smokers. The study presented in this article displays that the body’s “combined response to the content of cigarette smoke and the physical act of smoking leads to changes in brain activity that can drive the urge to smoke” long after one has quit.

There were many concepts from chapter 3 that aided in my understanding of this article. It is easy to see where the medial forebrain bundle is referenced in this article. The medial forebrain bundle is known as the “pleasure center” and upon stimulation, allows us to receive positive reinforcement. The positive feelings that the bundle produces in humans can easily be linked to effects of smoking. For a smoker: to induce pleasure one would smoke. The pleasure gained is proved to be addictive and thus the smoker wants the feeling more. This is also known as the positive reinforcement. If one smokes and they receive pleasure, then smoking will likely ensue as one tries to replicate the pleasurable feeling gained from the cigarette.
Another concept that helped to better my understanding of this article is the septo-hippocampal circuit (part of the limbic system – associated with emotional experience). This area of the brain forecasts emotion associated with upcoming events in terms of anticipated pleasure and anticipated anxiety. This relates to smoking as the thought of smoking allows one to anticipate pleasure. Within the septo-hippocampal circuit is the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens plays a critical role in the experience of pleasure from naturally occurring reinforcers and drugs that contribute to addictions. In the case of smoking, the nucleus accumbens affects the “drugs of cigarettes” – nicotine – that contribute to addictions. By providing the experience of pleasure from the cigarettes, it prompts the act of smoking to continue in order to reach the affects desired – pleasure.
Another concept is that of the neurotransmitter, dopamine. Neurotransmitters act as chemical messengers within the brain’s central nervous system. Dopamine generates good feelings associated with reward. When one smokes, the neurotransmitter, dopamine, is triggered by an incentive – that is, stimuli that foreshadow the imminent delivery of rewards. A smoker’s incentive is the pleasurable feeling that follows a drag on a cigarette. This foreshadowing allows the release of dopamine which in turn generates good feelings and portrays the feelings as rewards to the smoker. Thus, the continual act of smoking leads to more good feelings and more rewards – leading the smoker to take another drag to continue the sequence.

This information proves that the motivation to quit smoking is not entirely dependent on internal factors. The environment is manipulative enough to cause an ex-smoker to smoke again. As stated in the chapter, motivation is intertwined with the social context provided. Therefore, if someone observes smoking in a movie, they could be motivated to smoke. Also, we are not always consciously aware of the motivational basis of our behavior. The biological mechanisms that unconsciously occur, present us with motivating situations that are key factors as to why movies provoke people to smoke.

One aspect of the article that I wanted to learn more about was the “quitlines” that they presented in the article. After researching quitline services, I learned that it is a free service to help people quit using tobacco. There is a support team to help you create a “quit plan,” a step-by-step quit smoking guide, as well as a free supply of nicotine patches or gum. It was also interesting to see the qualifications for receiving help from quitline (some examples, but not limited to: being uninsured, underinsured, or pregnant, etc.).

Terms: medial forebrain bundle, septo-hippocampal circuit, limbic system, nucleus accumbens, neurotransmitter, dopamine, and incentive.

The article is a piece on why your brain thinks smoking is cool. Obviously most people don’t think smoking is cool but the article suggests that when we view people smoking in movies, tv shows, etc, that it enables our brain to think that action is pleasurable. Viewing people smoke can also make former smokers relapse into old habits. The simple action of smoking is powerful enough to fool our brain into thinking it’s good/pleasurable. The rest of the article just list facts about why smoking is bad and the statistics of smokers who try to quit and who actually quit each year.
My thoughts on this article are really what I thought before; smoking is bad for you but social influences can form our mind into thinking that it could be pleasurable. In a vast majority of the psychology classes I’ve taken we’ve discussed how such simple social norms can affect our lives in tremendous ways. The topic of this article could be changed to alcohol or sex and we could direct the roots to why people have these addictions to the basis of where anyone sees things, in the public, media, friends, etc.
What interests me about the article is the percent of people who know a behavior is bad but continuously do it. I understand that quitting something is not just simple decision that happens in a second. When a person strives to quit something like smoking, it’s a step by step process that needs to be followed before any chance of dropping the habit is to happen. So my main interest, I suppose, would be the people who lose the motivation. Why can some people be so much stronger mentally than others? This is what interests me most about this topic.
After reading chapter 3, I was able to learn more about why some people are mentally stronger than others. The information that best help me understand this motivation was learning about the prefrontal lobes of our brain. The prefrontal cortex is the limbic system which receives incoming sensory stimulation that activated rather automatic emotional reactions. The prefrontal cortex is located right behind our forehead and is split into left and right regions. The right side deals with thoughts of negative and avoidance-oriented feelings, whereas thoughts that stimulate the left side generate positive and approach-oriented feelings. This information is important because some people have specific sensitive areas in there prefrontal cortex. So someone with a strong right side would get down on themselves a lot, while someone with a strong left side have a much more positive approach. These emotions we experience help shape what kind of person we are. They help determine what kind of things the body needs in order to be “normal.” So my example would be to someone who has a weaker sense of motivation. They quit because they don’t see an outcome that works for them. So they continue to do the habit that makes them feel normal. Someone with a stronger motivation understands that normal isn’t always good. They see the future and understand that in order to feel better a habit must be changed. Once that habit has been change, the feeling of that state will be a far better rush that the current state of normal. These different approaches will lead to the distribution of the neurotransmitter “dopamine” in a way that the person’s mind thinks will be best. Dopamine is a chemical that basically makes us feel good. I believe that with the proper information and education, people can train themselves on motivation. They’ll be able to understand that it’s a process and not just an instant request.

Terms: neurotransmitter, dopamine, prefrontal cortex, limbic system

The article "Smoking in Movies: Why Your Brain Thinks It's Cool" was centered around the idea that cigarette smoking in movies can lead to ex-smokers picking up the old habit again due to brain activation in areas that are linked to the physical habits of smoking. It is also thought that actors make smoking look cool to kids, which increases the chance for them to start smoking. The article also discussed how smoking tobacco is the number one preventable cause of death in most countries and is very addictive, yet despite the health risks, only a small percent of smokers are able to quit without relapse.

I thought that this article made valid points concerning smoking in movies. I think smoking in movies portrays that it is an okay thing to do, which is something that I do not agree with. For the most part, it is a common sense thing that smoking is bad, yet reading this article and absorbing how many people are affected by nicotine addictions was wild. The most interesting part of the article was when it discussed relapse rates. It is unbelievable that less than five percent of all smokers succeed at quitting. Being a person that does not and will never smoke cigarettes, I feel as though quitting should be easy. But apparently, it’s not. Despite the numerous forms of therapy out there for helping smokers quit, there still isn’t a 100% guaranteed way, and that really sucks.

One aspect of the article that I really wanted to learn more about was the cognitive behavior therapy to quit smoking. What I learned was that cognitive behavior therapy is a technique that helps people eliminate negative thoughts and replacing them with alternatives. The therapy involves talking to a therapist about current problems, dealing with stress, and how to turn negative thoughts into positive ones. The goal for smokers is to be able to have confidence in their ability to quit and to learn ways to cope with stress and urges. From the sounds of it, it seems like cognitive behavior therapy would be helpful with encouraging smokers and helping them set goals for their future.

My understanding of concepts from Chapter 3 really helped me comprehend parts of the article. For example, neurotransmitters such as dopamine that are released during the act of smoking generate good feelings for the smoker. Taking a puff of a cigarette is an incentive that triggers the dopamine release, causing pleasure to the smoker. Thus, smoking comes to be what is known as a reinforcer, meaning that the smoker will continue to smoke cigarettes due to the fact that they know that dopamine will be released when they do so. Nicotine is an addictive drug, and the repeated usage of it can lead to what is known as dopamine-induced neural hypersensitization. Essentially, the brain structures are sensitized to dopamine stimulation more than other rewards that occur naturally.

All of this information teaches me that the motivation to quit smoking is something that is a lot more complicated than the average human thinks. The brain and the body are both at work here, which could definitely be why so few smokers are able to quit their bad habit without relapse.

Terms: neurotransmitters, dopamine, incentive, reinforcer, dopamine-induced neural hypersensitization

Reading the title of the article one can predict that the article will have information about smoking and why we are influenced to smoke. The article talks about when we see a character in a movie smoke, how we learn from their actions of smoking and it becomes a second nature for us. We aren’t taught how to smoke a cigarette, we see actors on TV do it and we simply mimic their movements. Stated in the article, there have been movements to stop movies from producing scenes of people smoking. They believe that if a child sees an actor smoking in a movie the child will assume smoking is cool. They also believe that it will drive ex-smoker to smoke again, because seeing someone smoke might active certain brain areas to cause physical habits. The article also mentions nicotine and how we believe that it is addictive but a study in 1994 has suggested that nicotine in not addictive. The world still does not know a way people who would like to quit can quit and that is the purpose for some smoking studies. I think this was a very short article with plenty of information. At first reading the article I thought I was going to be about why they band smoking in movie theaters but it was not. This article has clarified some things for me. I used to wonder if smoking was bad for you, then why don’t these people just quit. My godfather was hospitalized with lung, heart and kidney problems a week before I came to Iowa. He was practically an inch from dying, he could not breath and he wanted a cigarette. I thought it was simple if you wanted to live longer than put down the cigarette, just stop smoking. Just like everyone else I knew cigarettes where bad I just did not know how badly. I did not know that smoking prevents wounds from healing and is a major reason for poor outcomes of surgery or fractures. And I thought that information was probably the most interesting to me in the article. I found that to be helpful because I would always tell my godfather that smoking was bad but I could never give him a proper example of why smoking was bad. I wanted to know about the numbers of people who try to quit smoking. I looked at Texas, where I am from, and it looks like Texas is actually slightly about the average for the U.S, in people who attempt to smoke. I learned that we have yet to figure out how to help people from smoking, and why smokers who quit, end up relapsing. But this is the purposes for studies like the article. I also learned that motivation can be impacted by watching someone.

Upon reading the article, a few interesting things became apparent. The thing that stuck out as most profound was that smoking generates a recursive loop.

The article more or less says it outright. The motions of smoking beget smoking in at least, smokers and former smokers. Why would this be? The simplest answer would be the motions of smoking are highly specific, so specific that it is next to impossible to mistake them for anything else, even when just pantomimed. The specific action becomes predictive of it's associated rush and inexorably tied to the vice in our minds.

For those of us who at one time smoked or do smoke, our body holds on to that action because it has the capability of causing us pleasure. Nicotine has undeniable biological effects related to the stimulation of chemical messengers. Like any other thing that feels good, it is easy to want more of that feel good behavior. It begins to feel like a reward for the motion.

The truly profound part of this to me is how this biological truth may translate across to other addictions or even just other actions. Thinking through the list of vices one might have, many addictions have highly specific actions related to them. Simply watching those actions occur on screen to spur the behavior again.

The more specific actions of the vice, the more predictive the behavior seems to our body on a biological level. It means that the action would lead to more arousal in the case of more specific actions. Think of it as the difference between alcoholism and heroin addiction.

You drink many substances that are not alcohol, thus the action is a poor predictor of incoming alcohol and would not arouse the body in the same ways. A better predictor would be the removal of a metal cap from a glass bottle, since glass bottles are almost exclusively beer bottles these days.

If the heroin addicted individual began to tie off or to prep a needle, the body only knows the one way to view that because that is one of a very few set of circumstances where it would go through the action. It's literally classical conditioning.

Terms

Stimulation- Anything that generates a change in the individual or the environment.

Chemical Messengers- A class of compounds that transmit messages within biological creatures.

Reward- Something that generates positive affect, best when linked to specific stimuli.

Arousal- A reactive heightened biological state.

Classical Conditioning-A form of learning where a primary stimulus signals the occurrence of a second stimulus.

This article is, obviously, about smoking. There are a good number of statistics included about the actual prevalence of smoking and the small percentage that quit for good. 20% of adults in the U.S. are smokers and half of that percentage try to quit any given year with only 5% succeeding for over a year. The response that smokers have in their brains can be triggered by even watching their current or former habit played out on screen. The brain activation in actual smoking and in the viewing of it are very similar, which is a good reason why the CDCP and the American Lung Association have wanted the act to be banned from movies, however long that shot may be.I liked the article, it had a lot of good information. The extra links were helpful but the bulk of information was included in the original article itself, which is always best. However, for those who were not inclined to travel away from the original article and take a little extra time, there was a lot of interesting information that was missed. The original article could have included a bit more about each of the linked pieces. It showed the typical thoughts on smoking and why they weren't entirely accurate.

I found it very interesting that smoking can actually cause wounds to heal more slowly. This lead me to click on the link provided in the original article that took me to another article about the damage of smoking on post surgery outcomes. The secondary article described some of the issues associated with smoking. Smoking itself can lead to all sorts of issues but it can also have effects indirectly. Smoking increased the likelihood of blood clots forming during wound healing. The success rates of some surgeries, including spinal and heart, decreased when the patient was a smoker.

At the tail end of the chapter, there is a short section on not being consiously aware of our motivations. It uses hunger as an example; not many people say they feel hungry due to low leptin levels. Smoking would seem similar to this. People may not think, I feel the crave to smoke because of an external trigger motivating my brain to produce neurotransmitters, those chemical messengers inside my brain. Those neurotransmitters (or NTs) are dopamine, the specific NT that is related to good feelings. Part of the job of dopamine is to make us take notice of things that are rewarding and enjoyable. The problem with drugs is that they can overtake this reward pathway. The sight of someone else smoking, even in a movie, can act as an incentive for the smoking behavior. An incentive is a stimuli that preceeds a dopamine releasing activity. This incentive can cause dopamine release in the anticipation of an event that we find satisfying, a reward, and can sometimes be better than the event itself. This incentive can be strong and lead to approach behavior of the event it is tied to. Or, if dopamine release does not occur, or the reward is unsatisfactory, there would be no motivation to approach.

This dopamine system becomes hypersensitive to addictive drugs, like nicotine in smoking. This means that normal levels of dopamine as reached by day to day activities are no longer enough; the feeling that drug gives is much better than anything else. When the smokers try to quit, the hypersensitization can be one reason they do not succeed. Its effects can last for years after the initial drug use has stopped. This leads to a state of wanting, a precursor to reward, instead of liking, the byproduct after reward. If liking is not present, as would be the case with smokers who have tried to quit, only the wanting is there and that is only a partial reward with no actual pleasure.

terms: neurotransmitters, dopamine, incentive, reward, wanting, liking

http://www.livestrong.com/article/234656-the-effects-of-smoking-surgery/

This article addressed the negative effects of smoking and how movies portraying smokers can be linked to relapse of ex-smokers. It stated that "smoking is a bad habit," and had comments and material that supported this statement. It also discussed some reasons why people who try to quit or who have quit relapse despite the negative consequences of smoking.
I believe this article pointed out many unpleasant but real consequences of smoking. It mentioned that approximately 443,000 deaths are attributed to smoking per year. It also pointed out that cigarette companies consistently try to refute the known fact that nicotine is addictive. It is startling to know that so many people, about 20 percent of U.S. citizens are smokers, even though there is a great deal of evidence showing that smoking is the leading preventable cause of death. I, personally, do not understand why one would even begin smoking knowing the information available.
One of the things that I found most interesting is that movies with people smoking can "activate brain areas linked to the physical habits of smoking" leading to a relapse in smoking for ex-smokers. I find it interesting that by just watching the physical act of smoking, areas of the brain are triggered making the ex-smoker want to pick up a cigarette again.
It continues to amaze me how influential movie portrayals are in our society today. Smoking in movies is exceeding influential, especially to adolescence. An article entitled “Smoking in Movies May Turn Teens to Cigarettes,” discusses possible reasons why smoking in movies makes the idea so appealing to the youth. Many people believe that it is the ‘cool’ factor that influences teens to pick up the habit. In a study conducted, they found that individuals who watched more movies with smoking were much more likely to pick up the habit themselves. Researchers found that adolescence were 33 to 49 percent more likely to begin smoking for each extra 500 smoking scenes that the teens watched. Those who conducted this study believe that by taking smoking scenes out of movies, the likelihood of teens beginning the habit would decrease significantly. Through reading this and similar articles, I learned that smoking in movies puts teens at higher risk for developing the habit due to visual exposure and that smoking in movies is a highly controversial topic.
Understanding the concepts in chapter 3 helps me to understand this article because the chapter explained the brain’s involvement in motivation and emotion. The chapter discussed how different areas of the brain trigger different emotional and physical responses to stimuli creating some sort of motivation. The two main types of motivation are approach and avoidance (pg 54). Approach is the want or desire to participate in a particular task, while avoidance is the want to withdraw from a task or inhibit behavior.
The brain uses cognitive-intellectual functions, motivated brain, and emotional brain to make decisions about whether to perform a task or what task to perform (pg 49). Cognitive intellectual functions are what make the brain care about the task that it is performing. The motivated brain cares about whether you want to perform the task or not. Finally, the emotional brain cares about how you feel, what your mood is, while doing a task. So, because being driven to do something is not solely based on cognitive intellect, a smoker who knows the negative consequences of smoking may continue to smoke because it makes him/her feel good (emotional brain), making him/her want to do it (motivated brain).
Chapter 3 continues on to explain that there is a link between nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco and cigarettes, and dopamine, the neurotransmitter that releases good feelings. A neurotransmitter is a chemical messenger within the brain’s central nervous system (pg 62). Nicotine produces hypersensitivity to dopamine stimulation (pg 66), giving those who smoke that good feeling as they smoke and for a little while after. It is the dopamine release that gives the feeling of reward in a situation. This makes smoking rewarding to the smoker. The next time that a smoker goes to pick up a cigarette, it is the incentive, the stimuli that foreshadow delivery of rewards (pg 64), that drives the individual to take another puff. They know that if they smoke, they will be rewarded with that positive feeling produced by the release of dopamine.
All of this information teaches me that quitting smoking is not necessarily mind over matter. It is not purely cognitive intellectual functions that process the information to let us know that “smoking is a bad habit.” There are more biological factors involved that make quitting much more difficult. The brain needs support and help to cease the habit.

Terms: approach motivation, avoidance motivation, cognitive intellectual functions, emotional brain, motivated brain, dopamine, neurotransmitter, incentive, reward.


Despite all the research and evidence pointing to cigarettes being extremely dangerous, cigarettes are still portrayed as a “hip” or “cool” thing to do. Anyone who has spent time around a person who smokes can tell you it is a disgusting habit; its smelly, dirty, and getting more expensive every day. These aren't the only drawbacks: as time goes on more and more evidence is pointing towards cigarettes as being a major cause of preventable death for thousands of people every year (according to the article, more deaths than AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders COMBINED).
So why do smokers keep up a bad habit with so many drawbacks? Why would someone be motivated to continue a habit that makes them smell bad and sucks up any extra income they have? The article brought up some interesting points, such as how smokers sometimes relapse after watching someone on TV or a movie smoke. For a smoker, watching someone else smoke can cause intense cravings for a cigarette. This is called a trigger, which is something in the environment that causes cravings for the addicts chemical of choice. Exposing a crack-addict to a crack-pipe would have a very similar effect. This occurs because after the drug is introduced to the brain, it causes the release of pleasure hormones from the nucleus accumbens, which is in charge of pleasurable responses to things I the environment. These hormones are called neurotransmitters, which are chemicals that are released by certain structures in the brain and have very specific functions (for example, dopamine is considered the pleasure hormone, and is released as a kind of reward to reinforce behavior). However because we are artificially releasing those hormones on a regular basis, eventually the brain starts to rely on that drug to release those pleasure hormones, which makes it so that cigarettes become more important than even food or water to the addict because it is the only thing that makes them feel good anymore.
Biopsychology is one of my favorite subjects because the brain is so complex; everything has to be in working order, otherwise behavior can change drastically. Chapter three did a great job talking about all the different brain structures and hormones and what role they play in the functioning of the mind. It helped me understand that motivation and emotion are both very biologically-driven functions of the brain. For example, the amygdala (which is in charge of negative emotions such as sadness, anger, or grief) can reinforce the smoker's habit by producing negative feelings like anger or irritation when the smoker hasn't smoked for a long time, and also weaken the smoker's desire to smoke because of the shame they may feel being ostracized from the rest of society for having to smoke a stinky little smoke stick.

Trigger, Nucleus Accumbens, Amygdala, Neurotransmitters

This article is about a new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience about smoking and how in addition to activating brain areas linked to addiction, watching movies where people are shown smoking can activate brain areas that drive body movements a smoker makes while smoking. The American Lung Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been trying to get smoking out of movies for a long time. The argument that they are using is that movies are trying to make smoking look cool and this increases the likelihood that children will stop smoking. This new study is showing that watching others smoking may activate brain areas linked to the physical habit of smoking, which could lead ex-smokers to start again. The article continues with the facts about how smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in most countries, and despite this knowledge, about 20 percent of adults in the U.S. are smokers.

What I found most interesting about this article was telephone helplines. I was not aware that there were hotlines for smokers. These hotlines, called “quitlines” are cognitive behavioral therapies. There are also other ways to help smokers quit, such as the nicotine patch, or medicines that can decrease brain responses to images that remind ex-smokers of their cigarettes.

I researched more into the chemical imbalance that comes with quitting. When you smoke, the number of nicotine receptors in your brain increases. Those who are addicted to smoking have billions more of these receptors that those who do not smoke. When you stop smoking, the receptors in your brain do not receive nicotine, so the pleasure response is cut off. The low levels of nicotine lead to symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, such as strong cravings, anxiety, restlessness, depression, anger, difficulty sleeping, irritability, etc.

To make stopping smoking even more difficult, the brain receptors can be conditioned to expect nicotine in certain situations even after you have stopped smoking. Trigger situations can cause intense cravings for cigarettes, even if you have stopped smoking for several months. The good news, however, is that once you stop smoking entirely, the number of nicotine receptors in your brain will eventually return to normal.

This ties into what we learned in Chapter 3, especially in the section on addiction and motivation. Addictive drugs, such as nicotine, are especially strong reinforcers because the repeated usage produces hypersensitivity to dopamine stimulation. This means that addictive drugs sensitize brain structures, such as the nucleus accumbens, to dopamine stimulation to a greater degree than naturally occurring rewards. Many addictive drugs cause dopamine-induced neural hypersensitization and once this occurs, it can last for years.

As for smoking specifically, some of the currently marketed products to help smokers quit take the dopamine-related pleasure out of smoking and nicotine. These prescription drugs help because they take the “liking” out of nicotine, though much of the “wanting” is still there.

Terms: brain receptors, reinforcer, dopamine, nucleus accumbens

This article talks about some reasons as to why it is difficult for people to stop smoking as well as why they may relapse. We know nicotine is very addictive and yet we are almost encouraging people to continue to smoke even though we say it’s unhealthy and that whoever smokes should quit. The article discussed the effects of people who smoke and are trying to quit or people who already quit smoking being influenced to smoke when they watch a movie depicting smoking. The simple act of an actor picking up a cigarette influences an individual’s drive center of the brain to want to smoke because it is or at some time was appealing to them.

Depictions of smoking should be banned in movies because we are all influenced by the behaviors we see. Our country wants people to stop smoking and to become healthier and yet we aren’t able to show healthy people who do not smoke in movies. Movies also attempt to make smoking appealing, which makes the drive to have a cigarette even more intense. Individuals who were or are addicted need support and should not come into contact with a cigarette or a picture, movie, or TV show where smoking is occurring, because it will become harder for the individual to resist.

I found the part in the article where they discussed how we all know smoking is bad and yet there are still a lot of people who smoke; also smoking is the leading cause of preventable death. I had always thought we were doing better in terms of people quitting smoking and becoming healthier. But this obviously isn’t the case, individuals recognize smoking is a bad habit yet they continue to smoke. Thus if we attempt to prevent appearances of an individual who is smoking in some form of media, maybe individuals will stop being influenced to smoke.

There are areas of the brain that influence an individual’s needs, desires, pleasure, and emotions. These areas may cause and individual to continue to take part in an unhealthy act because they brain still thinks its ok. For example the cerebral cortex as stated in the text is associated with cognitive functions such as thinking, planning, and remembering. This area also generates and regulates motivation and emotion, such as setting a goal. When an individual decides they are going to stop smoking this area attempts to set a goal and reminds the person to reach their goal. Another area of the brain that impacts what an individual does is the medial forebrain; this area is known as the pleasure center. If this area of the brain continues to be stimulated during a behavior such as smoking then it is likely to want the individual to take part in smoking again and again.

During the day we all face questions of what we are going to do and why. As things happen the orbitofrontal cortex decides if we are going to take part in the activity. This area basically processes what we do and influences the choices we make. In my opinion a significant reason it is difficult for individuals to stop smoking is because the dopamine in their brain is constantly wanting pleasure and to make the individual feel good. And smoking makes an individual feel good which causes them to continue to smoke. The book discusses some drugs that are available to help smokers quit the habit of smoking by taking the dopamine pleasure out of smoking. These drugs are helpful because they take away some of the liking, but a lot of the wanting remains. If we begin to stop showing smoking in movies and if we give smokers these drugs maybe they will stop smoking.

An aspect of the article I looked at more in depth is the concept of how movies impact the habit of smoking. Should smoking trigger an R rating? - CNN.com this article questions on if smoking should classify a movie as rated R. Researchers found that adolescents who saw smoking in movies were influenced to smoke. Basically what we see influences our behaviors, and if smoking looks appealing it is likely that individuals are more likely to try it. According to the article scenes of individuals smoking usually only occur in R rated movies today. “Scenes of smoking have become increasingly rare in non-R-rated movies, according to the MPAA. Of the movies portraying smoking in recent years, 72% were rated R, 21% were rated PG-13, and 6% were rated PG” (Gardner1). This is a good sign because younger individuals will not be influenced at a young age to smoke.

The simple act of smoking is being influenced by several factors, causing it to be very difficult for an individual to quit. I learned that there are preventative measures we can take to help individuals stop smoking as well as to never start. Our brain plays a major role in our behaviors and if individuals who smoke understand this they may be able to stop smoking.

Terms: drive, cerebral cortex, medial forebrain, orbitofrontal cortex, dopamine, likening, wanting.

This article described the harm of smoking cigarettes and how actors and actresses in movies smoking cigarettes can influence viewers negatively. The article states not only can seeing this in movies influence children to smoke, but it also can cause recovering addicts to relapse. Watching the motion of grabbing a cigarette and putting it up to one’s mouth can “activate brain areas linked to the physical habits of smoking.” This activation increases the chances one will relapse and smoke again. The article finishes by describing that the human body recognizes the combination of the cigarette’s contents and the physical movement of smoking. The recognition of this combination makes it even more difficult to quit successfully and permanently quit smoking.
I think this article was very informative and I enjoyed reading it. I don’t think smoking should be completely taken out of movies because there is an aspect of free speech and expression that should not be censored. There should, however, be warnings before the movie describing the harms of smoking and that it is put in the movie on a strictly artistic basis. I enjoyed how it described the connection between watching someone smoke and the desire to smoke. When the limbic system receives the visual stimuli of watching one smoke, it induces a desire to want to smoke again if the person has been conditioned to enjoy smoking. This enjoyment stems from a rewarding feeling the cigarettes provide. In chapter 3, the biological aspect of addictions is discussed. It states that addictive drugs make the brain hypersensitive to dopamine stimulation which is why the drugs can be so addictive.
In the article, I found it most interesting that more than 50% of smokers attempt to quit smoking but only 5% of all smokers actually succeed. This is a very significant statistic displaying how difficult it actually is to quit smoking. It also states that the rate can be increased with behavioral therapy but even this therapy does not prevent a very high rate of relapse. This could be because the stimuli of witnessing an actor smoking can induce a desire for the reward the ex-smoker knows accompanies smoking cigarettes.
While reading this article, I found a link for medicines that can decrease the desire to smoke even when smoking is witnessed. I thought this was interesting and potentially very helpful in everyday life so I thought I would look further into these medicines. When doing additional research into this topic, I discovered a nicotine-dependent person’s brain responds in many different areas when witnessing an actor or actress with a cigarette. The regions in the brain affected include, the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. After reading chapter 3, I now know the prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that can indirectly create emotions and also houses a person’s conscious goals. This makes sense because when cigarette smoking is viewed, there is a struggle internally between wanting to smoke and wanting to maintain their success in quitting smoking. This can cause emotional distress and the desire to smoke again. All of this information teaches us a lot about the motivation behind quitting smoking. It is clear that it is very difficult to quit smoking without relapsing. The relapsing is not because the person is weak, but because the brain is craving the nicotine. When the brain witnesses it, it recalls the rewarding feeling the cigarettes provide and it wants to pursue that reward.

This article is about how smoking shown in movies activates people’s brain to relive the exact moment, and feeling of actually smoking a cigarette. Watching smokers on film increases brain activity, therefore, making user’s either want to smoke more, or people that have quit to relapse and start smoking again. In addition, the article talked about how smoking is addictive and the probability of relapse among smokers. I thought this was an interesting article. It correctly informs us of a serious problem in our society.
One aspect of the article I find most interesting is how many people relapse. The article states that 50% of all smokers try to quit, but only 5% of those succeed. I was astonished when reading this information. How can something be so addictive that it actually becomes a need for that person? After reading chapter three, it helped me gain an understanding of why smoking is so addictive.

Several things are going on in our brain when we decide to smoke. Our hypothalamus is the first structure to generate a want for smoking. Our hypothalamus is activated whenever we desire something, like new shoes or a particular food. In this case, smoking is the desired activity. Often, people get a feeling of pleasure, or a social high, whenever they play their favorite sport, eat at their favorite restaurant, or meet an attractive person. The same feeling is felt by a smoker when enjoying a cigarette. The nucleus accumbens, which is part of the septo-hippocampal circuit, plays a role in our feelings of pleasure from external reinforcers. Prior to smoking, the orbitofrontal cortex processes our ability to decide if we should smoke because it feels good, or not smoke because we know it can hurt us.

In the article, it said that when tobacco company CEO’s testified, they said they believed nicotine is not addictive. This was hard to believe because it has been proven the effects nicotine has. Whenever we smoke, our bodies release a chemical substance called dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter that creates good feelings. Whenever people smoke, they get a rush of dopamine in their systems, which make them feel good. People get a surge of dopamine from many things. For me, I get a rush of dopamine when I eat chocolate chip cookies. The more people engage in this behavior, they synapses become extremely sensitive to the release of dopamine. This is why people have such a problem quitting. For example, I can’t stop eating chocolate chip cookies. It probably isn’t very healthy for me, but I have a high metabolism so it’s not affecting me like a bad habit like smoking. Because of nicotine addiction, people continue to smoke. This leads to harmful health effects and that is why it is such a problem.

Upon learning all this information about what goes on in our body when we smoke, I realize how tough it is for someone to stop smoking. It takes a lot of internal motivation to stop, because our body is constantly craving that next cigarette. It would be comparable for me to stop eating chocolate chip cookies, and I know that that will not happen.

Terms: hypothalamus, orbitofrontal cortex, septo-hippocampal circuit, nucleus accumbens, neurotransmitters, dopamine

This article discusses the link between watching movies and smoking. It explains that while watching a someone smoke in a movie may tempt you do smoke yourself. The study that the author talks about in the article provides evidence that watching people smoke motivates areas in your brain that creates you to want to have a smoke yourself. The study identifies that just the physical component of reaching out for a pack of cigarettes or even just lifting one up to your mouth may cause you to have a cigarette yourself if you already smoke or relapse and have one if you have quit, all because of the brain activity and the motivation to have one from the movement of a smoker. It then continues to talk about how addictive and dangerous smoking actually is and yet people still believe that nicotine is not addictive.
I thought that the article and study made a lot of sense. When you think about it anything that you really like to do such as play basketball, videogames, or even eat ice cream may be enhanced when you see other people doing it or someone keeps talking about it. If you’re sitting inside and watching the NBA, by the end of the game for some reason you always might give your buddies a call and ask if they want to go shoot hoops. This is the same with food. When you first get to your friends place you don’t feel like ice cream but they continue to talk about it and then you see a commercial which makes it look amazing which reinforces your behavior to go and get some. The part that was compelling to me is when all of this takes place I never think about the motivational drives that are going on in my brain. I might even suggest that once smoking is viewed and talked about all of the brain and physiological activities as expressions of motivation take place. Obviously activation of certain structures in the brain are occurring but also saliva or blood may start flowing more(Hormonal activity), heart might beat faster(Cardiovascular activity), pupil size may change(Electrodermal activity), your skin may get red because of the blood flow(Skeletal activity), and bodily gestures will change just because of your motivation to smoke.
What I found most interesting is the fact that some people want to take smoking out of movies because it may cause people to smoke more or start again. This amazes me considering someone is actually trying to get this done. If this happens they better do away with the fast food in movies, drinking in movies, eating chocolate in movies and anything negative that may impact someone’s health and or behavior. I feel that anything appealing to me that I see I am more motivated to take action on that activity, such as eating. I can eat a whole meal be full and the minute I sit down and watch the Food channel I’m going to the store to get more food. I could be wrong I just find it funny/interesting how someone wants to take out smoking in movies. If it’s not one thing it’s another.
After reading the section of the article that talks about 7 CEO’s of 7 tobacco companies standing up in front of congress and saying that they believe nicotine is not addictive, I was shocked. I then looked it up and found that it was true. I can’t believe that after all of the research out there today, and even back when they testified, that someone could say that. http://senate.ucsf.edu/tobacco/executives1994congress.html
Chapter 3 relates to this article by explaining what may be going on in the brain with motivation and where it might be happening at. The chapter talks about biochemical agents that stimulate parts of the brain such as neurotransmitters. This is what occurs when you take that puff of a cigarette. It also lets out dopamine which makes you feel good. Once you have experiences like this, every time you see smoking on TV or in person you are motivated to do it because it is something that makes you feel good after you do it. What I understand now from reading the article and chapter 3 is that the motivation you have to smoke is much greater than the motivation you feel to quit. If something makes you feel good, relaxes you, and rewards you, the likely hood that you will stop it is rare.

Terms Used:reinforcers,motivation,dopamine,brain activity,hormonal activity,cardiovascular activity,ocularactivity,electrodermal activity,skeletal activity,neurotransmitters, reward, stimulate

The article, "Smoking in Movies: Why Your Brain Thinks It's Cool" explains that a recent study has given us a little more headway in understanding why ex-smokers relapse, and that the act of watching movies in which people are smoking triggers the well-learned response in smokers to desire to copy the act as they watch it. This article also mentions that maybe with the new research done, that they would be able to possibly ban smoking in movies and on television, and that in previous times, they have tried, claiming that it glamorized smoking and made it a desirable habit for younger audiences. It also talked about how the general consensus knows that smoking is bad, and that big name tobacco companies still claim that nicotine is not addictive.
As a smoker, trying to quit, I really related to this article. I am on the fence with the issue of smoking, obviously, I smoke, so I think that the bans and the restrictions on it are stupid (Do you want to pay a three dollar tax for your alcohol? I didn’t think so. Also, how hard would it be for the city or UNI to put out a trash can or something so we didn’t have to make it look disgusting on 27th and now 31st street with the ridiculous amounts of cigarette butts out there?). At the same time, I’ve had family members die from smoking, and I know that it smells bad, people don’t like it, etc. The article does ring true, when I watch someone take a drag of the cigar or that cigarette on television or at the movie theater, OH GOD, do I want to smoke! Quitting smoking sucks, hardcore, there’s no doubt about it. I have struggled for the better part of two years now to quit, quitting for hours, days, weeks, and even months at a time. However, it always seems to drag you back under.
What was really interesting to me is how the act of smoking is so engrained into the brain from the repetition of smoking that watching someone do it on the screen triggers your brain into wanting to do it as well. Also, I thought it was interesting that twenty percent of adults smoke, and half of them try to quit every year, with only about five percent of that fifty actually succeeding. That was probably the most alarming aspect of the article to me, while at the same time, I felt a little reassured that it wasn’t the end of the world that I have fallen off the bandwagon so much, because 95% of the other smokers who try and quit do as well. However, people who are not addicted to cigarette smoking simply cannot or do not understand just how hard it is to quit. When I try talking to people about it, I try and compare it to their favorite food, or sometimes even something as drastic as not being able be affectionate with anyone ever again.
I looked up withdrawal symptoms of quitting smoking, as well as some tips and tricks to help you quit. I found a study done that shows when a person quits smoking, it speeds up the hypothalamus, making people hungrier than they would be normally, if they weren’t smoking. People who are quitting smoking also usually crave sweets, and use hard candies as a way to try and quit. This explains why so many people gain a bunch of weight when they try and quit! Because people become addicted to cigarette smoking, and because it’s such a well-learned behavior, there are lots of different ways that people are able to try and quit, including the patch, taking pills that suppress the desire to smoke (such as Chantix), chewing nicotine gum, nicotine lozenges, quit hotlines, and self-help books. As time goes on, and the ex-smoker goes on with their life, they tend to slip back into the habit due to stress, because the novelty is gone, because they think they can have ‘just one’ and be alright, as well as the idea that they can just quit again. The urges to smoke are worse the first couple of months, and then they get better, far after they no longer have the nicotine in their system. What this teaches me is that someone who is trying to quit smoking really needs to keep staying motivated, long after they think they’ve defeated the addiction. They also need to try and stay active, and really watch what they eat after they quit smoking, as the weight gain can be a significant downside to quitting smoking. Also, they need to try and limit their social circle to people who do not smoke for awhile, until they are confident that being around smokers won’t enable them to smoke. Also, they should avoid drinking alcoholic beverages, as it lowers your inhibitions and makes it easier for you to start back up. No matter how motivated a person is to quit smoking, relapses are extremely common, and you just have to keep trying to quit.

I found this article very interesting and yet somehow hard to believe at the same time. In summary, the article talked about how smoking is becoming a bigger and bigger phenomenon in the U.S. It contributes this to the media and how it aggrandizes smoking as “cool” and “popular”. Unfortunately the article doesn’t end well, stating we have a long way to go before we can figure out how to truly help smokers quit their bad habit.

What I most find interesting about this article would be the entire piece, and how part of me feels as if this is almost outdated. When watching television, I actually feel like I see more commercials that try and prevent smoking than advertisements for cigarettes. Even in movies, I feel like the hero and/or heroine rarely ever is seen using any type of tobacco. It is known world wide now the effects that tobacco can have on the body, and I feel like this has helped decrease the use of cigarettes in movies. According to the article, I’m wrong, but this is what I personally have observed.

Chapter three fits in well with this article because it looks at motivation from a biological and even physical standpoint. In chapter three we looked at the brain and how motivation correlates with our noggin. There are different motives that trigger different areas in our brain to respond to the stimuli. In the article there is an exact example of brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) just like in the text – dopamine. As I’m sure we’ve all read and learned about in previous psychology classes, dopamine is the “happy” neurotransmitter and releases feelings of happiness and pleasure. This is the reinforcer that is the reward that smoking elicits. We become addicted to the surge of dopamine, that “good feeling” rather than the actual act of smoking.

There are many different ways to quit smoking. One bizarre way I have heard about how people try to quit smoking is by using smokeless tobacco, like chewing tobacco. I wondered if this could actually work, so this is what I decided to do my research on. There was a study that compared U.S. women and men smokers to Sweden women and men smokers. The findings there were very opposite, which is another very interesting thing and shows us that culture plays a role in smoking. But when it came down to it, most women and men in the study did not switch over to just chewing tobacco (only 1.7% did). Therefore this article would suggest that smokeless tobacco is not a motivating enough substitute for smokers to quit smoking.

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/health/01-09SmokelessTobacco.asp

Terms:
Reinforcer, reward, dopamine, neurotransmitter

The article was about smoking how a persons brain is triggered by the sight of someone else smoking. The article was taking about a person being triggered by someone smoking in a film and how The American Lung Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are trying to stop smoking in movies and make it a law. They say that it triggers smokers along with giving the impression that smoking is cool to kids. The article also talked about the statistics on smoking and how many people die from smoking each year. Its more than AIDS, illegal drugs use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicide and murder combined. The article also talked about how twenty percent of Americans smoke and fifty percent will try to quit but only five percent will succeed at quitting smoking.
My thought on the piece was that it was really short but had a lot of information in it. I couldn’t tell if they wanted the smoking in movies to be the main focus of the article or just smoking and how it’s bad. The part about the smoking in movies was really short. If I look at that, I think banning smoking in movies would be good especially if it not a rated movie and children could see it. Even in older Disney movies characters are smoking cigarettes and pipes. When I think about them cutting out smoking in movies that involve action and cops or gage people, it’s hard to imagine them cutting out smoking. In a lot of movies where they have smoking in them they tend to show use of other drugs as well. I don’t know if movies would have the same affect if they cut out smoking and drugs. As far as the brain stimulation during a movie with smoking, I think it’s a little extreme because I don’t know anyone who smokes and sees it on TV or a movie and they just get up in the middle of it to go have a smoke.
An article I read by the Journal of Neuroscience, said that smoking is such a highly practiced motor skill that if occurs automatically and without conscious awareness. It also took seventeen non-smokers and seventeen smokers and had them watch a popular movie with smoking while hooked up to a brain monitor and it said that the smokers had more brain activity due to the smoking in the film but said that the parts of the brain that were simulated were the parts that pick up hand based gestures.
Spontaneous Action Representation in Smokers when Watching Movie Characters Smoke
1. Dylan D. Wagner1,
2. Sonya Dal Cin2,
3. James D. Sargent2,
4. William M. Kelley1, and
5. Todd F. Heatherton1
Copyright © 2011 the authors 0270-6474/11/310894-05$15.00/0
Chapter three helped me understand the brain and motivation to quit smoking because it talked about how your brain can rewire a behavior such as the habit to smoke which can make it hard to quite. A big part of your brain is focused on habits and repetitive behaviors. Trying to change the behavior can take a lot of behavior modification along with ways to change the chemical imbalance in the brain do to the nicotine. Nicotine and other drug uses can produce hypersensitivity to dopamine stimulation. This can cause natural occurring rewards in your brain to sensitize.
Terms: Dopamine, Nicotine, hypersensitivity, and stimulation.

This piece is about smoking of course, and about the subject everyone talks about quitting. It goes on to give a common viewpoint on why should we even study cigarettes we know they are bad just don’t do them. If only it was that easy, as statistics like 50% of people smoking try to quit daily and only 5% of those people are successful. This seems like a huge problem that needs fixing and really made me want to start research on this activity, because its not worth 400,000 deaths a year, just for .5mg of nicotine per cigarette. This also brings up a good point in the book. Grehlin is a hormone in your stomach that causes you to be hungry. And with more Grehlin you become hungrier, that compares to cigarettes in the idea that with more tokes, the more you want the next drag. We could also talk about the pre-frontal cortexes and how they contribute to smoking as well. First off the left cortex, is the side that lights up on PET scan when there are positive emotions or feelings, while the right side lights up on a PET scan when there are negative emotions. They both show general stimulants probably while smoking a cigarette, but if the person smoking doesn’t want to quit, the left cortex only would light up. With the idea of quitting both sides could probably light up through the idea of positively evoking thoughts of nicotine throughout the body while negatively still smoking when they want to quit. Through these brain scans we can also identify someone’s personality through either the Behavior Activation System (BAS) or the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS). They both contribute to how sensitive a person is or is not. For example with the left prefrontal cortex if it shows greater asymmetry on BAS items (EX. When I get something I feel excited OR I go out of my way to get things I want) they show a greater sensitivity to a reward, which leads me to my next point.

With high BAS scores it shows that people are easily motivated through rewards, which correspond to our neurotransmitter pathways. Specifically dopamine on this one. Cigarettes are in themselves a level of dopamine, as just the idea of them trigger a release of this substance into your lobe. Creating this sensitivity and “trigger” that causes a person to relapse so easily. Going back to the idea of BAS and the idea that if someone is more sensitive to this type they are rewarded greatly in the idea of the mind through the cigarette. For example when someone is a general smoker, they usually push an emotion through the cigarette, for example they are tired so they are looking for the general stimulant that is usually given through nicotine directly through the CNS. Through this the cigarette takes on its own effects in the body, that it begins to crave and understands the association, subconsciously.
What this teaches me how to quit smoking is that everything is consciously driven in some format, and we have choices. But after these choices are originally made then it becomes a battle through the body. With the right types of motivation anything addictive is curable


Terms: Left and right prefrontal cortex, ghrelin, BAS, BIS, dopamine

This article was very interesting. While reading it, I was thinking to myself that it was one of the most honest and informational articles regarding smoking. The author was not hesitant to write that in addition to being a bad habit, and a very hard one to break, that there are other social contexts that make smoking even more difficult to quit. Most articles about smoking focus solely on how unhealthy and dangerous smoking is, and goes on to talk about options one has to quit. This article used fear tactics and facts to motivate smokers to quit, as well as mainly explaining the reasons behind why smoking is so addictive, and extremely difficult to stop. What was most interesting to me was the science behind why smoking in the movies does not help those that are trying to quit -- that it activates brain areas leading to physical habits of smoking. This has a lot to do with what is written in Chapter 3.

Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers within the brain's central nervous system. A neuron that is carrying information will release a neurotransmitter and so that its neighbor can receive the information. This is called a neurotransmitter pathway. One of the four motivationally significant pathways is dopamine. Dopamine generates good feelings associated with reward and emotional positivity. I think that dopamine plays a leading role in the answer behind smoking addictions. Addictive drugs produce hypersensitivity to dopamine stimulation. This means that the positive feelings one may get from addictive drugs, like nicotine, become tehir most positive feelings, to the point where one cannot match the feeling that they get from the drugs in anything else that they might do. This then plays into the "liking" and "wanting" associated with smoking. Wanting is what one feels before the feeling of the "reward" they receive from the dopamine stimulation, whereas liking is the pleasure that motivates behavior, which is also encouraged by the dopamine.

Another important aspect of addictive drugs that ties into the article is that we are not always consciously aware of the motivational basis of our behavior. We look for motives to encourage our behavior, and as the article states, seeing smoking look "cool" in movies would trigger an unconscious motive to do that same, to look "cool" and smoke a cigarette just as the cool actor did in the movie.

It is sad that so many people struggle with addiction, and reading the science behind it almost makes it even more sad because it almost triggers a hopeless feeling in me. There are so many contributions to addiction that are within the body and brain that many people don't even know about. Addiction is not something that should ever be overlooked, and I support the idea to cut it out of everyday life as much as possible, including movies, so that the motives, both conscious and unconscious, are kept very minimal to all that are trying to quit.

Terms: neurotransmitters, neuron, neurotransmitter pathway, dopamine, liking, wanting, motive

After reading, " Smoking in Movies: Why Your Brain Thinks its Cool" I took a step back to think about my personal stance on this theory. I grew up with both parents being smokers, with several outside relatives smoking as well. When thinking of media I spent time watching several shows that included character's who smoked. However, I have never smoked nor thought it would make me a better person if I did choose to smoke. Although, I do not judge people who smoke because of my personal experience of it being "okay". The article states that there is a new finding published by the Journal of Neuroscience that watching people who smoke increases smoking. This article focus is on the media and how smoking is presented as a brain related stimulation for smoking. After reading the chapter I learned about how your brain associates motivation and emotion when behaving a certain way. Therefore, after learning about the brain side of action I wanted to learn more about the theory of media and smoking. I further read two articles on smoking in movies.

The first article was from the New York Times, " Movies be rated R for Smoking?". This article's focus is on the association for smoking in adolescents from watching movies that contain smoking. They plot the idea of changing the policy for movies that contain smoking to be rated "R". The idea is that this policy would reduce the amount of smoking in movies overall, as well as help aid parents in the decision to monitor what their children see. Studies show that this policy would reduce adolescent smoking by 18% according to Dr. James Sargent.
The second article," The Lowdown on Smoking in Movies" comes from the Norris Cotton Cancer Center. This article brings out all the facts and foundation based on smoking in movies. The article is set up as a Q and A about the basics of this theory. The article is also by Dr. James Sargent and based on his studies. Some of the key points I pulled out of the article that interested me was that children are more influenced by people that they know. Media is being blamed in my eyes. Children that are most venerable are medium risk children, who's parents do not smoke. This factor was surprising to me. They also stated the psychological findings of the association of the characters in the media that influence the adolescents as well.

Chapter three continues the explanation on the brain and what stimulates the motivation and emotion based on behavior. The brain structure is so specific and the generation of motivation is so complex and impressionable. Biochemical agents stimulate many aspects of the brain that motivation is developed on. The table on page 51 can be considered when it comes to brain motivation. Environmental Event (Seeing smoking), Biochemical Agent ( dopamine released), Brain Structure (feeling good adaptation), Aroused emotion ( smoking is good, positive affect). Smoking is such an addictive act that when started it can be applied to every aspect of the brian and its emotions. Smoking becomes a day to day act than it is your life. What occurs for addiction is a dopamine-induced neural hypersensitization. Your body adapts to the dopamine released from your action of smoking and than develops and addiction. Each aspect is driven by the hormones and brain function by neurotransmitters in your body.
In summery the chapter broke down each aspect of the brain and its function with motivation, therefore, the article does seem to be factual in the theory of watching smoking increases smoking. Your brain associates good, and wants to feel good.

Stimulation, Brain, motivation, emotion, risk, brain structure, biochemical agents, dopamine, aroused emotion, environmental event, neural, addiction, hormones, neurotransmitters.

This article was quite interesting because smoking is one of those habits that has always perplexed me as to why people do it. Everyone, at least in this generation, has been given information and facts that proves that smoking is harmful and can lead to many health problems or death. If we have received this education, then why do people continue to smoke? If people continue to smoke, why do so many people try to quit every year but fail?

The most interesting part of the article for me was the number of people that will die every year from smoking. Almost a half of a million people will die in America alone from smoking. This is an outrageous number, and it's definitely a number that could be eliminated if people paid more attention to the statistics and the number of negative health effects.

I want to learn more about why the images of people smoking in movies can lead to teenagers starting to smoke and existing smokers to relapse. My theory is that the dopamine levels in the brain are affected just by receiving the image. I feel that the audience that is addicted to nicotine starts to feel that smokers' high just from seeing the image. The younger audience could be affected if the smoking is paired with an attractive person. The younger audience has plenty of hormones running through them, and the arousal of an attractive person can start to cause arousal towards smoking.

Understanding chapter 3 and how the brain works really helps understand the article better because it explains how cigarettes and nicotine work with your brain. The nicotine is sent to your brain to give you the sense of feeling good, or a calming sensation. When this goes away, smokers will anxious or tense making it extremely difficult to quit.

Terms: dopamine, addiction, arousal, hormone

I thought this article gave good insight on how hard it is to quit smoking. The article talked about how movies make smoking look cool. There is also a new study saying that when watching smoking in movies, it triggers areas in the brain that are linked to addiction and it activates brain areas that are associated with the body movements that a person makes while smoking. They believe that this could contribute to relapse. It goes on to say how the American Lung Association has been trying to stop smoking in movies. To counter that, seven tobacco companies testified before Congress and each of them said that they didn't believe nicotine is not addictive. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in most countries. About 50% of smokers try quitting each year, but only 5% succeed. Along with that, about 50% of ex-smokes relapse within a year.
I thought it was very interesting that smoking contributes to more deaths than AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined. Also, i thought it was interesting that smoking prevents wounds from healing and affects surgery outcomes.
I was curious about what goes on in the brain when someone smokes. The area associated with addictions is the nucleus accumbens. It is part of the septo-hippocampal Circuit. The nucleus accumbens generates a liking reaction to different incoming sensations. When someone gets a positive feeling, that is because of the dopamine. Dopamine produces positive feelings and nicotine can enhance that feeling, by making it hypersensitive. This can last for years once exposed. People can want but not like nicotine addiction. This means that they want the feeling caused by nicotine, but they do not like what they are doing.
I chose to look further into the tobacco companies CEO testimony before Congress. While searching, I found that they have been nicknamed the Seven Dwarves. This article included a transcript of who said what during the hearing. It was not the whole hearing, but the opening by Mr. Waxman (Rep. Waxman) and the testimonies of the CEO's. In Mr. Waxman's opening, he gives evidence of why smoking is bad for your health. He says that the habit begins with children (about 3000 children begin smoking each day). He offers more evidence with surgeons general testimonies against tobacco, but he gives a strong statement that this hearing will change the relationship between tobacco companies and the Congress. Then it goes on to hear each of the tobacco companies say "I believe nicotine is not addictive" or something close to that. But one CEO (James Johnston) made his statement wordy by trying to incorporate the classical definition of addiction.

Terms: septa-hippicampal circuit, nucleus accumbens, dopamine, hypersensitivity, wanting and liking

The article in summary basically talks about how addicting smoking is, but also that the addiction is something more than just saying you can quit and having the willpower to do so. It’s about the brain and the way the brain registers different environmental factors and the que to smoke a cigarette. The article also talks about social factors and that by seeing smoking being portrayed as ‘cool’ in movies it is instilling in people minds that it’s something one should do, and for those people who are quitting or have quit smoking, these movies reactivate that craving in the brain.
I found that the information presented was decent information, given the fact that the article didn’t elaborate much and for me it stated information that I already assumed to be true. Something I found very interesting would have been
After reading chapter three I can somewhat say that I can see how a smoker would be tempted to return to smoking, especially when presented with a certain situation. It’s like any other addiction, when do you find yourself reaching for that addiction. Is it when you’re bored, in a social setting, when you’re eating, when you’re drinking, when you’re stressed; what is the factor that brings about the craving for an addiction? As learned in chapter three, an addiction, such as smoking, taps into the brains pleasure centers. Also the addiction must be a motivation and that motivation of smoking a cigarette must be greater than not smoking a cigarette. It’s no news flash that cigarettes are bad for your health, and it’s not news flash that the CEOs of cigarette companies know this; but to them that paycheck at the end of the day is a bigger, much bigger, motivation to continue to support tobacco and its use. So that brings smoking down to one question, why smoke.
After reading the article and the book my attention was drawn to Dopamine, which is a hormone of the brain the will release a good feeling throughout the body which causes us to seek the activities that releases the Dopamine. So when looking at the addictive behavior of smoking, a dopamine rush as some would call it occurs, your brain longs for that rush over and over again, so even if you do quit smoking, seeing an action of a hand moving towards someone’s mouth can trigger that rush in your brain of the want for a cigarette. From reading about Dopamine in the text book and then the web article it helped me with a better understanding of what the web article authors were trying to get across, especially the point on when someone simply sees someone smoke in a movie how it can trigger the brain causing someone who hasn’t smoked in years to want to have a cigarette. It just reminds you that if you have never been a smoker, and especially a smoker who has ‘quit’ then you can’t fully relate to the sensation that person is feeling, that urge.
From the information presented in both the text book and the online article, I have learned that the motivation to quit smoking can be present in the human mind, but the biological will to follow through with the act to quit smoking and change the behavior can be very hard to overcome due to the need to fulfill the simulation that was once received from smoking and the impressions of the world around us.
Based on the text information and the website information I have learned that motivation to quit smoking can easily be thought about, there can be multiple motivations in fact, but the chemical and or biological will to stop quitting can be very difficult, due to the fact of the need to fulfill that craving, and not to mention in our society we highly value what our media tells us is cool to do.
Terms-dopamine

The article in summary basically talks about how addicting smoking is, but also that the addiction is something more than just saying you can quit and having the willpower to do so. It’s about the brain and the way the brain registers different environmental factors and the que to smoke a cigarette. The article also talks about social factors and that by seeing smoking being portrayed as ‘cool’ in movies it is instilling in people minds that it’s something one should do, and for those people who are quitting or have quit smoking, these movies reactivate that craving in the brain.
I found that the information presented was decent information, given the fact that the article didn’t elaborate much and for me it stated information that I already assumed to be true. Something I found very interesting would have been
After reading chapter three I can somewhat say that I can see how a smoker would be tempted to return to smoking, especially when presented with a certain situation. It’s like any other addiction, when do you find yourself reaching for that addiction. Is it when you’re bored, in a social setting, when you’re eating, when you’re drinking, when you’re stressed; what is the factor that brings about the craving for an addiction? As learned in chapter three, an addiction, such as smoking, taps into the brains pleasure centers. Also the addiction must be a motivation and that motivation of smoking a cigarette must be greater than not smoking a cigarette. It’s no news flash that cigarettes are bad for your health, and it’s not news flash that the CEOs of cigarette companies know this; but to them that paycheck at the end of the day is a bigger, much bigger, motivation to continue to support tobacco and its use. So that brings smoking down to one question, why smoke.
After reading the article and the book my attention was drawn to Dopamine, which is a hormone of the brain the will release a good feeling throughout the body which causes us to seek the activities that releases the Dopamine. So when looking at the addictive behavior of smoking, a dopamine rush as some would call it occurs, your brain longs for that rush over and over again, so even if you do quit smoking, seeing an action of a hand moving towards someone’s mouth can trigger that rush in your brain of the want for a cigarette. From reading about Dopamine in the text book and then the web article it helped me with a better understanding of what the web article authors were trying to get across, especially the point on when someone simply sees someone smoke in a movie how it can trigger the brain causing someone who hasn’t smoked in years to want to have a cigarette. It just reminds you that if you have never been a smoker, and especially a smoker who has ‘quit’ then you can’t fully relate to the sensation that person is feeling, that urge.
From the information presented in both the text book and the online article, I have learned that the motivation to quit smoking can be present in the human mind, but the biological will to follow through with the act to quit smoking and change the behavior can be very hard to overcome due to the need to fulfill the simulation that was once received from smoking and the impressions of the world around us.
Based on the text information and the website information I have learned that motivation to quit smoking can easily be thought about, there can be multiple motivations in fact, but the chemical and or biological will to stop quitting can be very difficult, due to the fact of the need to fulfill that craving, and not to mention in our society we highly value what our media tells us is cool to do.
Terms-dopamine

Although this Huffington Post article was somewhat short, it was still filled with useful information. In summary, the article talks about how smoking is a “bad habit” that becomes a psychical addiction. It also puts in perspective how difficult it is to drop the habit once an individual becomes addicted, stating that 50% of U.S. smokers try to quit each year with only 5% succeeding. The article also uses the popular portrayal of smoking to relay this message. For instance, it mentions that movies featuring smoking have the ability to make ex-smokers pick up the habit again.
Something I found interesting about this article was the statistic about the amount of deaths related to smoking each year. It states that smoking causes nearly 450,000 deaths per year in the United States alone, this is a shocking number. An even more shocking statistic than this that this article points out is that yearly death totals of smoking are greater than deaths caused by AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined!
Something I would like to learn more about is the treatment methods used to help smokers quit. The article mentions behavioral therapies, nicotine replacement therapies, and medicines that can decrease brain responses that remind ex-smokers of cigarettes. However, I would like to learn what the most effective method being used to quit smoking is and if there is any research being done to come up with even better ways. I found that using a combination of counseling (e.g. 1-800-QUIT-NOW), having smokers talk with their doctors about quitting, and using scientifically proven medications can really boost quit rates. However, it is important to combine these tactics for an individual to have the best chance at quitting. I was unable to find any research being done with hopes of finding the “end all” solution to quitting smoking.
Reading chapter 3 helped me understand why people become addicted to smoking and why it becomes difficult for them to quit. The continuous use of addictive substances such as nicotine produces hypersensitivity to dopamine stimulation. Therefore, whenever a smoker encounters nicotine, dopamine levels in the brain increase sending the message that this substance is “good”..which in turn leads to the individual seeking out nicotine to satisfy desired dopamine levels. Once these dopamine-induced neural hyper-sensitizations occur they can last for years, which is why smokers have a hard time quitting because in sense the brain craves nicotine.
All in all, 50% of adult smokers in the U.S. are motivated to quit smoking every year. However, only 5% of those smokers stay motivated and become a non-smoker. This shows the powerful effect smoking has on people and the amount of motivation it takes to truly quit. According to research, it may be in the best interest of individuals trying to quit to use outside sources that are willing to help them stay motivated until they can consider themselves smoke-free.
Terms: addition, nicotine, dopamine, hypersensitivity, neural hyper-sensitization

Basically this article discussed that there are mental and physical aspects of smoking that drive smokers to want to smoke again and again, even though we all know how dangerous smoking can be to our health. Even watching someone’s smoking behavior in a movie can trigger brain areas relating to addiction mentally and physically. The fact that smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in most countries should be enough to make people stop smoking, or never start. I feel like there must be a very strong motivating force acting on the people who choose to engage in that smoking behavior. Also, those 5% who succeed of the 50% who try to quit must have a very strong motivation to do so. I would guess that this motivation might be external. It may be a lack of money, pregnancy, or some other external drive. It just seems that with such an addicting substance, internal motives may not be as sufficient. I just found it to be most interesting that even though smoking is the leading preventable cause of death but yet people still don’t have the motivation to quit destroying their health.

One aspect I chose to learn more about was cognitive behavioral therapy for smokers. I had heard of it but I never really knew what that type of therapy consisted of even being a psych major, so I figured it’d be good for me to find out! I learned that this type of therapy focuses on issues surrounding the reasons a person smokes and helps them figure out ways to change these behaviors. Since cigarettes help relieve stress, a person may be afraid to quit because he or she is worried that the stress will take over. CBT helps alleviate these worries by developing ways to overcome them. This therapy can be in individual sessions or group sessions with a therapist and it teaches the participants how to avoid negative thoughts and reactions. This therapy aims to increase confidence and alleviate the stress and fears related to quitting. Extended CBT has been shown to help people quit smoking without relapsing for a long period of time.

There are many terms in chapter three that helped me understand the content of this article and how it relates to motivation and emotion. This article talked about how watching movies can get into the brain of a smoker. In the beginning of chapter the book talks about the brain is not only used for thinking, but it is also the center of motivation and emotion. Thus, an environmental event can take place (watching a movie) which can stimulate a biochemical agent (such as a pleasant feeling while remembering smoking- dopamine), and then it triggers the brain structure that causes an aroused feeling. It may not be an aroused emotion when watching that movie. In this case it could be the feeling that you need a cigarette so that would be negative. Another section in the book was the section on addiction. The effects of nicotine on its addiction in the brain can last for years. It sensitizes the structures of the brain to dopamine stimulation. They also discuss the difference between liking and wanting of nicotine and other addictive substances. Some of the “cures” for smoking take the liking out of it but leave the wanting. Thus, it helps somewhat, but the want and therefore the drive is still there.

Terms: external and internal motivation, wanting and liking, dopamine, motivation and emotion, biochemical agent, addiction, sensitization

Outside Source: http://www.everydayhealth.com/smoking-cessation/living/coping-with-the-urge-behaviorally-and-mentally.aspx

This was an interesting article to read. It was rather short, but it was full of useful and interesting information. Such as it explaining how smoking being an addiction is actually in our brains, and not just a habit that we're stubbornly trying to break. I knew how serious smoking was to your health, but it surprised me that it's the leading cause out of AIDS, drugs, alcohol, car accidents, suicides & murders combined. That's crazy! I also had no idea that it prevents wounds from healing. I find that very interesting as I look back on a few smokers in my family, their health situations & connect the dots. It all makes sense now.

I also found it rather interesting that they have cognitive behavioral therapy to help you stop smoking, so I decided to look more into that. I already know the basics of cognitive behavioral therapy -- to change an action that you use to deal with stress and learn to focus on dealing with your feelings in a healthy way. With smoking, it also helps to make the patients confidience in their ability to stop increase.

Relating these articles with chapter 3, I think that if the patient finds a new way to deal with stress, then they would be exhibiting the Dopamine induced neural hyper-sensitization, by taking pleasure (releiving stress) out of the situation. Since people are smoking to relieve stress, it is also taking o the pleasure role, which can be found in the amygdala area of the brain, which is the "feel good" neurotransmitter. It's also the area where anxiety and fear come from. You hear a lot of people say "I'm going to quit smoking." But fail to do so. This chapter made me understand that this addiction is controlled in their brain. The anterior cingulate cortex area in our brain is our day-to-day mood and decision making area. This part of the brain is what does the work in healing during the cognitive behavioral therapy. It will eventually stop going straight to wanting a cigarette, to recognizing the other options that can be made instead of smoking. The motivation to quit smoking isn't something that you can just say you're going to do. You actually have to train yourself and your brain to utilize other ways to cope with stress.

Terms: Dopamine, neural hyper-sensitization, amygdala, neurotransmitter, anterior cingulate cortex, motivation

This article about smoking got my attention because I have smokers in my family and a few friends who tend to do it from time to time. So it always intrigues me to find out more information on it, so the next time I come in contact with them I can give them newly founded details on why they should considering smoking. Basically this article talked a lot about how still today seeing smokers in movies (as a child) can set a bad example for the younger generations. This really didn’t surprise me, because researchers have been saying for years how harmful the affect on children can be when they see their role models doing it. Along that line the article continued to talk about how addiction plays a part in a smokers life when they are trying to quit. Something as simple as seeing an actor/actress smoke can set them off to wanting to puff. The article talks about a few therapy’s that can help smokers quit their bad habit, but it says that 50% of the 20% of the population that smokes, now will relapse and begin to smoke after only being off of it for a year because the nicotine is so strong with the activated brain areas that are telling the smoker it still needs a puff.

Something I found interesting was the part where old smokers were able to pick up smoking just because they saw it being advertised in the media, some famous star was doing it, or just simply by seeing it in the film industry. I’m happy the Hollywood scene has taken the smoking-effect of movies more seriously with not showing as many films with smokers in them. Hopefully that’ll help some of the younger generation to see that you can be cool without the smokes.

From the chapter 3 reading I pulled together that the neurotransmitters which are chemical messages from one neuron to the next. There are many neurotransmitter pathways located in the brain. Dopamine is one of them. It generates the good feelings we get. This is where anything addicted, whether it be drug related or simply a sweet tooth for some chocolate, dopamine can last years and years. Here is a good example as to why so many relapses occur with smokers. The nicotine intake is so strong it’s hard for them to let that addictiveness go.

I’m a movie fanatic, so I decided to look more into the opinions on others where the influence of smoking is linked to kids viewing it. The one article I read mentioned how we should or could be monitoring our children more often on what they can and can’t view where smoking is concerned. But a counterpoint is that the kids can go around that by watching the scenes of a movie at a friend’s place or just simply downloading the movie legally or illegally on the internet. They don’t believe that they should control who gets in to view the movie, because as far as research has gone today there is no evidence that points that not letting them watch a movie with smoking involved will reduce them from becoming a smoker. This quote rings true in my book, "Movies showing smoking might have a lot more in them that might appeal to youth at risk of smoking than just smoking." Simply, this quote is saying there are so many more bad influences out there. We just need to get to each one of them and start lessoning their influence little by little. I have a feeling we have a long road ahead, but at least we can say we are trying to take down the influence of smoking in movies and in general, one day at a time.

Terms: addiction, neurotransmitter, dopamine.

Outside source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/QuitToLive/smoking-movies-influence-kids/story?id=14367917

The first paragraph...I made a whoops and meant to say, "So it always intrigues me to find out more information on it, so the next time I come in contact with them I can give them newly founded details on why they should consider to stop smoking."

This article was about trying to put a stop to smoking in movies because of the fact that smoking in movies makes it look cool and it encourages kids to start smoking. The new reason to put an end to smoking in the movies is because seeing smoking in the movies can activate an area in the brain that will contribute to a relapse.

I thought that this was a very interesting article. I have never heard that watching someone smoke in movies could make someone want to start smoking again. I always thought that being around someone in person who was smoking would cause someone to want to start smoking again, but never thought about just seeing someone smoking in the movie would cause the same outcome.

I chose to look into the idea that smoking has negative outcomes in surgeries. Smoking can have negative effects after surgery. It may cause blood clots and may also diminish the quality of healing. There are many adverse health effects of smoking.

This can be related to chapter three when they discuss how addictive drugs are reinforcers because repeated usage produces hypersensitivity to dopamine stimulation. This means the more the person were to smoke the higher the dopamine stimulation would be. This would also relate back to why it is so tough to quit smoking. This also relates to why so many people who have tried to quit smoking have relapsed.


Terms: hypersensitivity, dopamine stimulation, reinforcers

In summary, this article was about how seeing smoking in movies can activate the areas in your brain that are linked to addiction. The article states that smoking is made to look cool in movies which can lead kids to want to smoke. Showing smokers in movies can also lead ex smokers to pick up the habit again. The article also states the smoking this the leading preventible cause of death in most countries. Something that I found pretty interesting in this article is that smoking can actually make your wounds heal slower than normal, and can cause your bones to fracture more easily. I never knew this before reading this article. Something else that I found interesting and also quite disturbing was that as of 1994 CEO's from major tabacco companies testified before congress and all of them stated that they did not believe nicotine was addictive. This just blows mind. I cannot believe people would actually do something like that despite all the evidence that supports just how addictive nicotine is!

I decided that this is what I wanted to learn more about. I wanted to see how much more tobacco companies deny. According to an article on the cancer council website, tobacco compies have publicly arguing that nicotine is not addictive, the link between cancer and smoking has not been proven, and that the industry has not tried to get young people to smoke. However sinse the 90's and early 2000's a new type of legislation made it so that the industries could no longer deny the harm that their cigarettes caused. Once the dangers of second hand smoke were made clear many people began supporting anti-smoking groups. Again the tobacco companies fought back with things like the funding of "smokers rights" foundations. The article also stated that the tobacco companies have in fact tried to encourage young people to smoke. I thought that this article was very good at pointing out all the things that the tobacco companies have denied. I think that more people need to make themselves aware of how harmful these companies are to people. They are very good at manipulating people to use their horrible product.

Chapter 3 helps support what the article discuses. Dopamine release is a major part of what motivates us to do a certain thing. Dopamine makes us feel good and can produce enhanced functioning. What makes us "want" to do a certain thing is regualated by information provided by dopamine output from the ventral tegmental area (VTA). VTA releses dopamine into other brain areas which "rewards" a person when a particular course of action is taken. The text also states that dopamine release which events in the environment are rewarding. This relates to smoking habits because it produces hypersensitivity to dopamine stimulation. Hypersensitivity means that, "addictive drugs sensitize the brain structures, such as the nucleous acumbens, to dopamine stimulation to a greater degree than do naturally occuring rewards, such as good food." Many addictive drugs (nicotine)cause dopamine-induced neural hypersensitization which can last for years. This is why it is so common for ex-smokers to relapse. This shows why it is so difficult to quit smoking. Its difficult to quit because smoking makes you feel good through the release of dopamine, which in turn becomes a stress reliever.

Terms- dopamine, hypersensitivity, VTA, nucleous accumbens, dopamine induced neural hypersensitization.

This article was an interesting read. While the subject was something most people are familiar and aware of (obviously, since 20% of Americans are smokers and 50% of those try and quit every year) and the information included was something groups like JEL and other organizations have been slow feeding us since the 90’s, it was organized, concise and reminded me why I was so happy to have my smoker friends forced to go outside with their habit in businesses around Iowa. I imagine, the feelings and strong emotion of disgust towards cigarettes I got while reading the article, something that happens whenever I read a piece on the consequences of smoking, is akin to the physical response a smoker/ex-smoker gets when they are reminded of cigarettes in some way; whether it be smelling cigarette smoke, talking about cigarettes, seeing someone smoke in their daily lives or, in the case of the article, in movies they are watching.
The article did two things. One, it highlighted the difficulties of someone attempting to quit smoking; ignoring the pleading that some articles regress to of trying to get smokers to understand how bad smoking is for your health. Instead understanding that everyone between smokers and non-smokers has a pretty good idea that smoking is not good for your health and summarizing the current findings of cigarette addiction without bogging down the article with too many statistics and facts that most already know. However, I did find it interesting, along with the author, that smoking has an effect on our healing processes and “is a major reason for poor outcomes of surgery or fractures”. Secondly, the article gave light to how addicting this habit is and linked it to processes in the brain. In my opinion, this is nothing new. We already knew that nicotine and smoking were addictive, regardless of how much big tobacco companies would like to try and ignore scientific evidence that says otherwise. There is research in addiction for other drugs such as heroin, cocaine, etc. that show evidence to support that structures in the brain are effected by use; such as, neurotransmitters involved in releasing dopamine. Even nicotine has shown to have this sort of effect on the brain. Therefore, it’s no surprise to me that a person’s behavior conditioned over a long period of time would result in cravings for that behavior when that person sees the same sort of behavior they used to do. In other words, a person basically smokes the same as the next, so over the years that they smoke, they are conditioned by the effects of the nicotine in the cigarette every time they bring the cigarette up to their lips. Therefore, when they see someone smoking and the routine of inhaling that smoke, the addicted individual’s mind can’t help but return to thoughts of how that cigarette makes them feel. My friend quit smoking a couple of years ago and he always talked about how the cravings would hit him the hardest while driving in the car because he was conditioned to smoke while he drove. This is about the same thing. To put it another way, when I’m sitting at home watching television and am incredibly hungry, if a commercial for Taco Bell comes on, I immediately realize how hungry I am and how long it’s been since I’ve let myself succumb to Taco Bell.
In summary, despite being hard on the article, I enjoyed it a lot. While it didn’t have any new information for me, that doesn’t mean the information provided was not new for the next person. At least, I can cite this article the next time I wish to make my smoker friends suffer thru an anti-smoking speech while ‘enjoying’ their addiction. If I have to smell it and breathe it second hand, then they are going to have to hear what I have to say. Plus, who doesn’t like to annoy their friends with information that they already know, my friendships are always set to ‘obnoxious’.

Smoking is cool. That is what is portrayed in lots of movies. Just watch old movies from the 50s and 60s smoking is ever where. Although it seems less common today, it is still there. The tough guys in gang movies smoke always seen to be smoking and looking cool. It makes boys look tough and strong. The women look pretty and glamorous as they smoke. The women are always beautiful. These are traits that each gender wants. The article shows how just watching someone smoke on a movie or TV show can make a person want to light up a cigarette. The article states that watching someone smoke with trigger ‘brain areas linked to addiction.’ These means even though a person is trying to stop smoking their brain starts telling them that they need a smoke. People know that smoking is bad and kills 443,000 people a year according to the article. Also lots of people try to stop each year but very few succeed to actually quit smoking. The article believes that if smoking was taken out of movies it would help people quit.

After reading this article I agree that smoking should not be in movies. There are movies where teens are smoking and showing children that smoking is cool. I do believe that seeing someone smoke triggers the wanting to smoke. Yet, I do not believe that taking smoking out of movies will make that big of an impact in the fight to stop smoking. The neurotransmitters in the brain are what send a signal to smoke. Smoking will release a chemical called dopamine with is a pleasure feeling that all people want. Even if smoking is not in movies it is still in real life and they will see it all the time. I also believe that emotion and the kind of mood a person is in will affect their odds of reaching for that cigarette. If they are stressed they are more likely to want to smoking. I believe that taking smoking out might help a little but it will not totally change smoking. The want for smoking will always be there. People will smoke if it in movies or not.

I found it interesting how just watching someone smoke can make a person want to smoke. They can be doing so well in their quitting and yet can throw it all away because they are tempted. It is not easy to quit smoking though. It is a constant struggle. It is an addiction that is controlled by a person brain. I find it interesting that the brain and the dopamine can fight against you in a struggle to quit and do what is healthier for your body. Also I was surprised to learn that nicotine was not the main problem of a person to stop smoking. It is what people are always taught that nicotine is an addictive drug and why a person can stop smoking. People are never told that it is the brain that is fighting us wanting us to smoke.

I wanted to know more about how Nicorette gum works and how it stops a person from wanting to smoke. I learned that it just helps with the nicotine that is in cigarettes. Nicotine is an addictive drug that makes people wants to smoke. From what I understand it makes the brain produce more dopamine. A person will go through with draw without nicotine. Nicorette gun simple gives the body the nicotine without the other harmful chemicals in the cigarette. Over time a person dependence on nicotine goes down until they do not need the gum any more. http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/smoking-cessation/medicines/nicorette-gum.html It has nothing to do with stopping the behavior of smoking or stopping people from wanting to smoke when they see someone smoking. I wonder how successful the gum really is. It may stop one chemical but the want to release dopamine is still there. People are still going to want to smoke.

After reading chapter three smoking and addiction make a lot more sense. I can now understand the parts of the brain that are working together during addiction. The chemical dopamine plays a huge roll. As said earlier it releases a pleasure feeling. Addiction is when it is hypersensitive and people want and need that feeling. They will keep smoking to get that feeling. Often they will smoke more and more to get that feeling. It becomes something they cannot control often time. They cannot just simply stop. Even if they do stop the wanting for a cigarette is always there still. It would make sense that watching a person some would make you want to also. Since you have never really stopped wanting to stop smoking. It is hard to quit smoking when your own brain is fighting against you.
Terms: addiction, want, like,neurotransmitters

This article discusses the addictive nature of cigarettes, not just that it is a bad habit and difficult to quit, but also that even watching actors in films smoke cigarettes can trigger the brain to remembering the movements smokers make and can cause many to relapse. This article also discusses the scary statistics about how many people try to quit smoking each year, how many succeed, and how many relapse. It hits a little too close to home because I do have several friends and family members that smoke cigarettes. My father is the only person I know that belongs to the 5% that quit and never went back. Sadly, what I found most interesting about this article was the statistics of those that quit, those that try, and those that relapse. It honestly makes me really sad to see because I have seen so many people in my life that try to quit, but the worst to watch are those that can quit for over a year and end up “just having one”, where it leads to another and another and then before they know it they are regularly smoking again. One of the things I found interesting about the article that I wanted to do more research on is the different therapies used for helping those who do want to quit smoking. I decided to do a little more research on quitline, specifically Quitline Iowa. I work at the Center for Social and Behavioral Research and one of the studies we actually call for is quitline. I am mostly curious about how it could be so effective with helping smokers quit, considering what a difficult addiction it is to drop.
Quitline Iowa is a free program that gives assistance to those trying to quit smoking. They give you a nicotine plan and help you figure out what is the best dosage for your nicotine substitute whether it be gum, patch, etc. They also provide you with a “quit coach” that is available for you to call whenever you need advice or assistance. I would assume it works much like an AA sponsor. There is an initial quiz that you take at first to see if you’re ready to start. I did not find much on their websites about the effectiveness of their program but it does seem like it has worked for a lot of their clients.
A couple key things in the brain may be responsible for why smokers keep smoking. Unfortunately, the key is to not start in the first place. First, the release of dopamine (a hormone in the brain that releases good feelings in the body and almost creates a “high”) for smokers could be relatively strong. Not only is the nicotine acting as a stress-reliever or as a relaxer, but in a lot of cases smokers are not necessarily smoking alone. Especially now that smoking is banned in bars and restaurants and many other public places, this causes those smokers to flock together and smoke cigarettes in groups creating a sort of camaraderie. When a smoker smokes or seeing someone else smoking, they think of the sort of positive feeling they receive from their experiences with smoking and the dopamine release that they get (unknowingly).
Motivation is essential to those that want to quit smoking. It is important for smokers to want to quit in the first place, otherwise whatever program or drug that is used to help them quit will not be as effective. The great thing about quitline is that they recognize and also want the smoker to recognize that they need to be completely motivated if they want to quit. The smoker is not only dealing with the nicotine from the cigarette but also triggers from movies, friends, smell, etc.
Terms: dopamine
Source: www.quitnow.net

This article restated the well-known fact that smoking is bad for you, and that not smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in most countries. There are two reasons why it is so difficult for smokers to kick the habit, and when they do, why they often relapse. The first reason is because of the addictive substance nicotine in the cigarettes. The next reason involves the brain areas that drive the body movements of smoking. When a smoker (or ex-smoker) sees people in movies smoking, it activates those brain areas that learned the physical movements of smoking. This contributes to relapse that 50% of ex-smokers experience.

I thought this article had some interesting information. I was aware that nicotine was addictive, and I thought that it was the sole reason for addiction to cigarettes. It surprised me to learn that how our brain learns the repetitive, physical movements can have a lot to do with the addiction. Hopefully this information will be enough to dramatically decrease the amount of smoking in movies, thus helping ex-smokers fight the relapse.

I decided to find out more about how smoking can affect wound healing and surgery. Nicotine causes the blood vessels to constrict. So when you have a wound, there is a diminished blood supply able to heal the wound. Nicotine also contributes to increased platelet adhesiveness, which leads to blood clots. Because nicotine constricts blood vessels and decreases the ability of blood to go where it is needed, smoking can negatively affect spinal surgery. For people who undergo spinal fusion, the bone grafts need to heal completely for the best results. If someone is a smoker, their blood vessels will not allow the necessary nourishment to reach and heal the bones.

Chapter three and the description of dopamine really connected the article to the study of motivation for me. The bottom line is that smoking and its immediate effects signal reward. When our brain figures out that smoking will give us reward, simply the anticipation of smoking will trigger the release of dopamine. This release of dopamine makes us feel good and motivates us to actually smoke the cigarette. When the dopamine pathway is stimulated, our approach behavior toward the rewarding event is increased. Smoking is reinforced when dopamine is again released during the actual behavior of smoking. The nicotine is an especially potent reinforcer because the repeated usage produces hypersensitivity to dopamine stimulation. The nicotine sensitizes the nucleus accumbens more than naturally occurring rewards. In other words, chronic smoking causes so much release of dopamine that the brain stops producing the normal amount. When a smoker doesn’t smoke, they are depleted of dopamine until their next cigarette. This just shows how much the brain is involved in motivation. Smokers who struggle with quitting cannot be blamed for a lack of will power, but rather a chemical imbalance in the brain.

Terms: dopamine, approach behavior, reinforcer, nucleus accumbens

The article’s focus was the classic message that tobacco is bad, but rather than showing grotesque images taken from of a lifetime tobacco user, it took the educational route. The notion that smoking is simply a bad habit that can be broken simply using willpower was also addressed by explaining nicotine’s action on the mesolimbic and visuospatial neural pathways in the brain. When someone trying to quit sees a cue for smoking (another person smoking), their brain responds by activating mesolimbic dopamine reward pathways which are associated with pleasurable actions. Furthermore, if quitting simply requires the use of willpower, the fact that only five percent of people trying to quit each year succeed shows that it might not be as simple as many people still believe.

The part I actually found most interesting about this article was the mentioning of how smoking impacts the body in a much more global manner, showing effects on wound healing and surgical outcomes. These effects are caused by two different factors: nicotine’s vasoconstrictive properties and effects on platelet adhesiveness. I thought it was pretty important that the article made a point to emphasize that nicotine affects the body on multiple levels, making it harder to see tobacco as just a bad habit with possible distant consequences on health.

I liked this article’s approach to the topic of tobacco use by focusing on resulting chemical reactions within the body. I believe more progress can be made in the prevention and treatment of all forms of substance use as we continue to understand these complex interactions between the substances we may choose to ingest and the processes within the human body.

That being said, I also believe that simple education on tobacco’s impact on the body will never successfully eliminate the habit at this point. No matter how much information there is out there on tobacco’s impact on health; it will always be up against not only the human mind which first identified its impact on memory and attention, but also a history of legal cultural use stretching back to its discovery in the America’s. I think we often sidestep the fact that when tobacco was legalized, we allowed ourselves access to something that could function as a proverbial “go button.” In a world that does not have enough time to sleep or raise its own children; I think it’s realistic to assume that a niche will always exist, and if tobacco is not around it will probably be replaced.

Terms: mesolimbic, visuospatial, dopamine

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