Smoking Progression and Nicotine-Enhanced Reward Sensitivity Predicted by Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Salience and Executive Control Networks

The neural underpinnings underlying individual differences in nicotine-enhanced reward sensitivity (NERS) and smoking progression are poorly understood. Thus, we investigated whether brain resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC.) during smoking abstinence predicts NERS and smoking progression in young light smokers. We hypothesized that high rsFC between brain areas with high densities of nicotinic receptors (insula, anterior cingulate cortex [ACC], hippocampus, thalamus) and areas involved in reward-seeking (nucleus accumbens [NAcc], prefrontal cortex [PFC]) would predict NERS and smoking progression.