Well, I never really thought about how big my brain was, although, I'm sure my parents did from time to time. As luck would have it, my brain is probably bigger than yours, well only if you smoke that is. Yep, that's right, smoking makes your brain shrink. Who would have thunk it! This was the conclusion of a recent study in Addiction Biology where MRI studies were able to find a link between chronic smoking and structural brain abnormalities. So maybe there are stop smoking benefits after all, just for you.Apparently, little is known about how smoking actually impacts your gray matter or how it affects any pre-existing brain abnormalities. These researchers looked at the gray matter volume differences of 88 candidates, half of whom were chronic smokers (44). The smokers all had decreased gray matter volumes in the left thalamus, medial frontal cortex and anterior cingulate, when compared to the non-smokers. The scientists hope this will pave the way to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of chronic smoking in the brain.
So there you go. If you have a brother-in-law who smokes and you don't, you can very nicely tell him that your brain is bigger than his. I'm sure he'll appreciate the gentle reminder of your superiority. I know my in-laws do everytime I remind them.
