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The brain changes that occur during adolescence may mean teenagers smokers are more likely to become seriously hooked than those who take up the habit as adults, suggests a new rat study. Previous studies have suggested that the earlier someone starts smoking, the more likely they are to be life-long smokers and the more trouble they have in kicking their addiction, says Edward Levin, who led the study at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, US. Experiments to distinguish between the various possible causes could not ethically be conducted in humans. But when Levin and his team let teenage rats help themselves to nicotine, they found that female teen rats - at an age equivalent to 14-year-old girls - take twice as much as rats only exposed to nicotine in adulthood. And this insatiable use carries on when they grow up. "The results indicate that early nicotine exposure can leave a lasting imprint on the brain," says Levin. "The brain continues to develop throughout the teenage years. Early nicotine use may cause the wiring of the brain to [develop] inappropriately." copied from http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4163

Citation: Bhattacharya, Shaoni. "Teen brain changes increase cigarette addiction." __NewScientist__. 15 Sep 2003. NewScientist. 16 May 2008 .

summary: Teenagers who are smokers are mostlikely to become really hooked more than the adults who take up the habit.Studies have told that the earlier that people start smoking,they're mostlikely going to be life-long smokers,which leads to no ending of stoping.experimenting results tells that having early exposure of nicotine can leave a lasting imprint on the human brain.

The majority of smokers take up their habit during their teenage years, says Levin. In the US, 88 per cent of smokers had started before they were 18, despite it being illegal to sell cigarettes to anyone under that age. The team provided teen rats aged about 40 days with nicotine. Others were given nicotine only after they had passed into adulthood, at about 70 days. The rats could help themselves to the drug using a lever system, which when pressed gave them an intravenous shot of nicotine. "The adolescents took twice as much on a per kilogram basis as adults," he told **New Scientist**. "Furthermore they continued to administer twice as much when they became adults." copied from: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4163 summary: Most people catch their habit of smoking during thier teenage years a person named Levin said.In the united states eighty eight per cent of smokers had started smoking before the age of eighteen even though it beening illegal to sell cigarettes to anybody under that age.

Reward centres
Levin says that during adolescence, areas involved in cognition such as the frontal cortex and hippocampus are fine-tuned, as are the reward centres of the brain. The infant development of the brain involves making more synapses, he explains, but adolescent development involves paring down the nerve junctions. "If you sculpt the brain around addiction, you could make it much more permanent," he says. It is this trimming away of extra synapses that may also make teenagers better learners than adults. "Previous experiments [in rats] found adolescents quite a bit superior to adults in learning new things - whether learning where to go in a maze or learning addiction," he says. Levin thinks the team's findings could have implications for treatment. "There may be different strategies for smoking cessation for people starting earlier or later," he says. Journal reference: //Psychopharmacology// (vol 169, p 141)

copied from Bhattacharya, Shaoni. "Teen brain changes increase cigarette addiction." __New Scientist__. 15 September 2003. New Scientist. 21 May 2008 .

summary: This portion of information is giving Levin's say of during adolescence,areas involved in cognition such as the frontal cortex hippocampus are finetuned also about the infant development of the brain involving making more synapses,And paring down.

** TEEN CIGARETTE SMOKERS LIKELIER TO MEET MEDICAL CRITERIA FOR ALCOHOL, DRUG ABUSE AND DEPENDENCE **

**NEW YORK, NY,** **October 23, 2007** – The nicotine in tobacco products poses a significant danger of structural and chemical changes in developing brains that can make teens more vulnerable to alcohol and other drug addiction and to mental illness, according to //Tobacco: The Smoking Gun//, a new white paper released today by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University and commissioned by The Citizens’ Commission to Protect the Truth, a group of all former U.S. Secretaries of Health, Education, and Welfare and of Health and Human Services, all former U.S. Surgeons General, and all former Directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. copied from: Duran, Lauren. "Tobacco: The Smoking Gun." __The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University__. October 23, 2007. CASA. 21 May 2008 http://www.casacolumbia.org/absolutenm/templates/PressReleases.aspx?articleid=508&zoneid=65. Summary: This portion of information is telling about New York, NY, on October.23,2007 - In how the nicotine in tobacco products has a significant danger of structural changes, and chemical changes in the development of the brain that can make teens more addicted to alcohol, and other drug addictions, and to some mental illnesses.

Accepting as inevitable America’s college culture of alcohol and other drug abuse threatens not only the present well-being of millions of college students, but also the future capacity of our nation to maintain its leadership in the fiercely competitive global economy. By bringing the nation’s college presidents, trustees, alumni, students and the larger community together with leading journalists for dynamic panel discussions, this important and timely conference will create a dialogue that will offer solutions for how America can stop wasting its best and brightest young people.

copied from: Califano, Joseph. "Casaconfrences." __The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University__. Oct. 23, 2008. casa. 23 May 2008 http://citationmachine.net/index.php?reqstyleid=1&reqsrcid=14&mode=form&more=.

summary: This portion of information is telling about America's college culture of alcohol and other drug abuse threatens not just only the presedents well being of the millions of college students, but also the future capacity of our nation to maintain it's own leadersship.