The attenuated inhibitory control of smokers is a stumbling block for treating nicotine dependence. Unfortunately, smokers are often exposed to cigarette-related salient cues, which may violate homeostasis, override self-control, and lead to relapse. To understand the mechanisms underlying these associations, we investigate the cognitive and neural processes of inhibitory control (including proactive and reactive inhibition) of smoking cues in abstinent smokers. Twenty-six smokers completed cue-reactivity and stop signal tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, on two separate sessions, 2-3 weeks apart: one involved a neutral cue reactivity task, and the other a smoking cue reactivity task. Findings pointed to no significant subjective craving changes, or behavioral influences of smoking cues on proactive and reactive inhibition. However, abstinent smokers exhibited hyperactive brain reactivity in response to smoking versus neutral stimuli, in regions including the insula, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and putamen. They also had hypoactive bilateral rostral ACC (rACC) and hyperactive right pre-supplementary motor area during reactive inhibition in smoking versus neutral conditions. Support vector regression analysis showed that activation of these regions predicted and correlated with reactive inhibition index (i.e., SSRT), alluding to the possibility of their involvement in the reactive inhibition. Subjective craving scores were predicted by and correlated with activation of bilateral dorsal and rostral ACC, supporting the ideas of their possible involvement in subjective craving. These findings suggest that smoking cues evoke hyperactive brain reactivity; this may interfere with normal performance monitoring and rapid reactive inhibition. These findings have important implication for treating smoking dependence.

吸烟者的减毒抑制控制是治疗尼古丁依赖的绊脚石。不幸的是，吸烟者经常暴露于与香烟相关的显着线索，这可能会破坏体内平衡​​，超越自我控制，并导致复发。为了了解这些关联背后的机制，我们研究了戒烟者对吸烟线索的抑制控制（包括主动和反应抑制）的认知和神经过程。26 名吸烟者在功能性磁共振成像扫描期间完成了提示反应和停止信号任务，在两个单独的会话中，间隔 2-3 周：一个涉及中性提示反应任务，另一个涉及吸烟提示反应任务。结果表明没有显着的主观渴望变化，或吸烟线索对主动和反应抑制的行为影响。然而，在脑岛、杏仁核、前扣带皮层 (ACC) 和壳核等区域，戒烟者对吸烟与中性刺激的反应表现出过度活跃的大脑反应。在吸烟与中性条件下的反应性抑制期间，他们还具有双侧嘴侧 ACC (rACC) 活动减退和右前补充运动区活动过度。支持向量回归分析显示这些区域的激活预测并与反应抑制指数（即SSRT）相关，暗示它们参与反应抑制的可能性。主观渴望分数由双侧背侧和嘴侧 ACC 的激活预测并与之相关，支持他们可能参与主观渴望的想法。这些发现表明，吸烟线索会引起过度活跃的大脑反应；这可能会干扰正常的性能监控和快速反应抑制。这些发现对治疗吸烟依赖具有重要意义。