Cue Exposure Treatment in a Virtual Environment to Reduce Nicotine Craving: A Functional MRI Study

Smokers show an increase in cue reactivity during exposure to smoking-related cues. CET aims at extinguishing cue reactivity by repeated presentation of substance-related cues and has been claimed a potentially effective method of treating addictive behaviors, including cigarette smoking. We applied CET to eight late-adolescent smokers in virtual environments (VEs). When comparing pre-CET regions to those of post-CET, the inferior frontal gyrus and superior frontal gyrus were detected. These regions are consistent with previous studies of activated brain regions related to nicotine craving, and VE-CET seems to be an effective method of treating nicotine craving.