Is there a neurobiological association between childhood trauma, alexithymia, and long-term nicotine smoking?

Nicotine use is recognized to be harmful on multiple levels, including brain and heart toxicity. A new study published in JAMA Network Open explores the risk for smoking presented by childhood trauma with subsequent failure of emotional regulation and the neural measures that reflect these risk factors. Not much is known about what drives long-term smokers to continue the habit. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides a tool to assess brain function in relation to tobacco use. While many studies have focused on the functional state of the brain at rest, dynamic-state measures could help understand how brain areas coordinate over time or with changing circumstances.