Brain’s response to nicotine is linked to personality

Some people may truly be born to smoke. A new study has found that the brains of men and women with naturally hostile, aggressive personalities respond more to nicotine than their nonhostile contemporaries.

This trait was identified by researchers at UC Irvine School of Medicine. Dr. Steven Potkin, a psychiatry professor, led the study in which personality exams were given to smokers and nonsmokers who were then divided into two groups -- one with anger, aggression and hostility, the other without. Participants got nicotine patches and underwent PET scans.

Among those with aggressive personalities, nicotine triggered significant metabolic changes in the parts of the brain that control social response, thinking and planning. Among those with nonhostile personalities, nicotine created no changes in the same brain regions. The differences may explain why some smokers have more trouble quitting than others. The study appears in the January issue of Cognitive Brain Research.

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-- Jane E. Allen