The latest research on nicotine has uncovered the reason why certain people seem to become addicted to nicotine after just one cigarette.

The study carried out in the United States highlighted one particular brain pathway that uses the neurotransmitter called ‘dopamine’ to transmit a signal that relates to nicotine’s rewarding and addictive properties.

The mesolimbic dopamine system pathway is directly involved with properties from addictive substances found in many drugs that are abused such as alcohol, cocaine and nicotine.

“Nicotine interacts with a variety of neurochemical pathways within the brain to produce its rewarding and addictive effects,” said researcher Steven Laviolette of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.

“However, during the early phase of tobacco exposure, many individuals find nicotine highly unpleasant and aversive, whereas others may become rapidly dependent on nicotine and find it highly rewarding. We wanted to explore that difference.”

“While much progress has been made in understanding how the brain processes the rewarding effects of nicotine after the dependence is established.

“Very little is known about how the mesolimbic dopamine system may control the initial vulnerability to nicotine; that is, why do some individuals become quickly addicted to nicotine while others do not, and in some cases, even find nicotine to be highly aversive.”

By identifying which specific dopamine receptor controlled the brain’s first sensitivity to nicotine’s addictive and rewarding properties the researchers were able to alter these receptors and control the processed nicotine as being either rewarding or aversive.

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