What Doesn't Kill you Makes you Fatter

What Doesn't Kill you Makes you Fatter: Neurobiological Mechanisms Underlying Effects of Nicotine on Addiction and Appetite

Air date: Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 3:00:00 PM
Time displayed is Eastern Time, Washington DC Local

Category: Wednesday Afternoon Lectures
Description: We all know people who smoke and have trouble quitting. People report that they smoke for different reasons including the desire to control their appetite, as a way to manage depression or anxiety or just because they relapse when they try to quit. It is now clear that nicotine is critical for both tobacco addiction as well as the other behavioral changes that occur from smoking. Nicotine hijacks receptors throughout the brain that normally respond to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. There are many different types of these receptors that are found in brain areas important for reward and addiction, anxiety, depression and appetite. Recent studies have identified the molecules and brain areas responsible for many of these nicotine-induced behaviors. These findings have resulted in new ways to think about and treat smoking addiction, and have helped us understand more about the molecules and circuits in the brain that normally use the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.

The NIH Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series includes weekly scientific talks by some of the top researchers in the biomedical sciences worldwide.

For more information, visit:
The NIH Director's Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series
Author: Dr. Marina Picciotto, Yale University
Runtime: 01:08:04
Permanent link: http://videocast.nih.gov/launch.asp?17194