Grant: Operating Grant

Tobacco smoking remains the leading cause of premature death in Canada despite current treatments. Issues related to efficacy and/or compliance limit the value of existing treatments for smoking cessation. Educational efforts regarding prevention of tobacco use disorder are certainly needed, but in addition, new ways addressing smoking cessation to encourage smokers to become smoke-free are warranted. Proof-of-concept work indicates that noninvasive brain stimulation can lead to suppression of tobacco smoking and craving. The general objective of this research program is thus to pursue our work of noninvasive brain stimulation on tobacco use disorders by further testing its effects on brain networks. Noninvasive brain stimulation has emerged as a safe and effective approach to alleviate symptoms in neuropsychiatric conditions such as major depressive disorders and the goal of this work is to extent this line of work to tobacco use disorders.