Smoking tied to changes in the structure of teen brains

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Young smokers who have smoked more cigarettes have clear differences in their brains compared to lighter smokers, according to a new study. “Earlier studies of older participants showed that the smokers had structural differences in various brain regions,” said senior author Edythe D. London. And in studies of adolescent animals, nicotine damaged and killed brain cells, added London, from the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and the David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles. “While the results do not prove causation, they suggest that there are effects of cigarette exposure on brain structure in young smokers, with a relatively short smoking history,” London said.