Specific Brain Injury Stops Smoking Addiction

From the New York Times:

Scientists studying stroke patients are reporting today that an injury to a specific part of the brain, near the ear, can instantly and permanently break a smoking habit. People with the injury who stopped smoking found that their bodies, as one man put it, “forgot the urge to smoke.”

Oddly enough, the part of the brain in question is the insula, otherwise known as one of the part that makes you a spendthrift or a tightwad. It’s the same part that lights up when a price is too high. The insula is crazy!—MEGHANN MARCO

In Clue to Addiction, Brain Injury Halts Smoking
[NYT]

RELATED: It’s Science: The Brains of Tightwads Function Differently Than Spendthifts

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.