Anti-smoking Research Project
Have you ever wondered how efficient is the anti-smoking campaign, especially the written and photo warnings on cigarettes packages? Recent studies regarding smoking habits have shown that these warnings seem not to be effective in convincing people to quit smoking.
We are doing a neuroscience research project to find out why these warnings don’t produce the adverse effect when it comes to smoking. More specifically, we are using neuroimagistic techniques (fMRI) to see what is the brain response to these warnings in smokers and ex-smokers – if they process these messages with the brains’ aversion areas or with reward areas. Also, we correlate these imagistic findings with other variables, like: ability to manage novel/ambiguous situations, make decisions and manage stress, in order to find the individual characteristics which could help people to control this addiction. The findings of this research study should contribute to a more efficient anti-smoking campaign and should also pinpoint mechanisms involved in the therapy of various addictions.
We collaborate with several organizations in this research project in order to integrate cross-reference data from various perspectives:
- Medix (neuroimagistic capabilities)
- Centrul Medical Unirea (health services)
- Catedra de Biochimie, Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie “Carol Davila” Bucuresti.
