Smoking May Thin Your Brain's Cortex and Impact Your Thinking in Later Life

Smoking may actually thin a vital part of your brain. Scientists have examined the long-term effects of smoking and have found that it could cause thinning of the brain's cortex, which is responsible for critical cognitive functions such as memory, language and perception.

In order to better understand the impacts of smoking on the brain, the researchers examined 244 men and 260 women. Their average age was 73, and the group included current smokers, ex-smokers and non-smokers. All of the volunteers were examined as children in 1947; the scientists used health data gathered during recent personal interviews with the participants and analyzed data from MRI scans.

"We found that current and ex-smokers had, at age 73, many areas of thinner brain cortex than those that never smoked," said Sherif Karama, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Subjects who stopped smoking seem to partially recover their cortical thickness for each year without smoking."

While the cortex grows thinner with normal aging, though, the researchers found that smoking accelerates this process. In addition, heavy ex-smokers who had given up smoking for more than 25 years still had a thinner cortex than those who had never smoked.

"Smokers should be informed that cigarettes could hasten the thinning of the brain's cortex, which could lead to cognitive deterioration," said Karama. "Cortical thinning seems to persist for many years after someone stops smoking."

The findings emphasize the fact that not only is smoking bad for your health, but it could also impact you later in life. The fact that it can cause cortical thinning could be a major contributor to cognitive decline in later years.

The findings are published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

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