In the article “Reward Processing and Smoking,” Bruijnzeel explains how we know that tobacco addiction is a chronic brain disorder, but we still do not fully understand the neurobiological mechanisms that explain why people smoke and have difficulty quitting. It also highlights that nicotine is one of the most addictive substances and its prolonged consumption leads to dependence and compulsive smoking. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Recent studies have shown that withdrawal symptoms lead to nicotine cravings and contribute to relapse. The intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) procedure was used by the Markou laboratory to study the effects of nicotine withdrawal on mood and showed that increased nicotine consumption increases sensitivity to rewarding electrical stimuli (Der -Avakian 2012). Then, conversely, nicotine cessation may lead to a decrease in sensitivity to rewarding electrical stimuli. A rodent study also showed that nicotine withdrawal impairs cognitive function (Rezvani 2001). These studies then lead experts to focus more on cognition and anhedonia (Bruijnzeel 2017). Anhedonia is generally described as a decreased sensitivity to rewarding stimuli and this plays a crucial role in drug use. Some studies have used time-varying effect modeling to learn more about anhedonia and the level of nicotine dependence. The study showed that during the first week after quitting smoking, anhedonia was more severe in people with a high level of dependence than in people with a low level of dependence (Cook 2017). Next, a survey was created that can be used to measure the expected enjoyment of joint rewards. As a result, once people quit smoking, they reported decreased pleasure from shared rewards (Bruijnzeel 2017). After drawing conclusions from these different studies, the results clearly indicated that smoking leads to deficiencies in the reward system and that people suffering from severe anhedonia contribute to the increase in tobacco consumption. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.Get a custom essayI believe Bruijnzeel has done exceptional research into why people become so addicted to tobacco and why they can barely stop. The majority of people understand that cigarettes and other tobacco products are highly addictive, but some continue to use them even knowing the health implications that could affect them in the future. The research presented in this article shows that quitting smoking could lead to anhedonia, which then leads to relapse. These studies provide crucial information about the mechanisms that contribute to smoking relapse and, hopefully, further research could lead to better treatments to help tobacco users quit smoking and combat the urge to continue smoking..