The center of smoking in our brain!

Dr. Pierre Paul Boca, 1824-1880, celebrated French anatomist, anthropologist and surgeon was the one who first made the diagnosis of the spot on the left side of our brain that contains the center of our  speech. When this area is destroyed, for example by a stroke, we become aphasic, or loose our capacity to speak!

Since Broca’s discovery  the neurologists have made a map of our brain of the various  neurological centers which are indeed similar to the keyboard of  a typewriter.

Recently at the University of Southern California, Dr. Antoine Bechara and his team of neurologists found out that smokers  who had a stroke  which destroyed the area of brain called INSULA, (an area of 2.5 square centimeters at the upper level of the ear lobes), these patients immediately “forgot  the urge to smoke”!

The findings were reported in the journal Science. Of the 50 participants with other brain injuries, 19 had quit smoking. "We know that the INSULA plays a role in the desire to smoke by anticipating physical effects brought on by emotions such as those induced by environmental cues," he said.

"There is potential for pharmacological developments," Dr. Bechara said in a statement. But the INSULA also carried out everyday functions, so researchers would need to be careful when disrupting bad habits such as smoking.