Neuroscientists: vaping harms brain development

Cotton candy flavor, fruit flavor, caramel pudding flavor... This is not about real food, but the various "flavors" of electronic cigarettes today.

Seattle in the United States plans to say "goodbye" to these electronic cigarettes, as the local government plans to ban them. This ban could help prevent the rising number of teenagers turning to vaping due to these enticing flavors.

Companies producing flavored e-cigarettes must now comply with a policy issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month, which prohibits the production of flavored e-cigarettes other than tobacco and menthol.

However, these manufacturers still provide a highly addictive substance through e-cigarettes—nicotine. Researchers have just begun to study the long-term effects of nicotine on brain development.

According to Science magazine, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held on February 14, Yale neuroscientist Marina Picciotto discussed some early findings primarily obtained from animal studies. She stated that e-cigarettes have become very popular over the past decade, and "we still do not know what the long-term consequences of consuming e-cigarette liquids or the nicotine they contain will be." However, initial signs are emerging.

One thing learned from adult smokers is that nicotine can be highly addictive. Some boxed e-cigarette liquids contain nicotine levels comparable to a pack of regular cigarettes. Nicotine "makes you lose interest in things you once enjoyed and prefer them instead," Picciotto said.

For teenagers, vaping may be related to taste, making nicotine more pleasurable and desirable. She said, "Nicotine enhances the response to the flavor itself or other stimuli that would otherwise have a smaller effect." For teenagers, these stimuli could be a piece of music or a pleasant experience, which strengthens the connection between nicotine and "pleasure".

So far, Picciotto has studied the long-term effects of nicotine on the brain development of mice. This research indicates that exposure to nicotine during development alters the structure of brain cells, thereby changing how information is transmitted in the brain.

These nicotine-exposed mice are more sensitive to stress and respond to stimuli that would not bother other mice. For example, those mice exposed to nicotine would react to mild electric shocks, while unexposed mice would not even realize they were shocked.

In studies conducted on humans, Picciotto has also observed similar phenomena, such as children exposed to nicotine in utero being more prone to emotional overreactions to stress.

Picciotto stated that this finding suggests that adolescents in a nicotine environment may undergo structural changes in their brains during development, leading to negative impacts on their future behavior. However, she noted that more research is needed to further analyze the complex relationship between behavioral issues in adulthood and nicotine exposure.

Picciotto acknowledged that switching to e-cigarettes can have certain benefits for adult smokers. However, non-smokers, especially teenagers, should not believe that "the vapor they inhale while vaping is harmless."