# Translational approaches to TMS treatment development for smoking

> **NIH NIH R01** · WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2020 · $623,712

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of mortality and morbidity in the United States, each year
contributing to approximately 443,000 deaths. Smoking and high relapse rates are likely due to factors that
affect both limbic and executive circuits in the brain, including vulnerability to salient smoking-related cues and
loss of cognitive control. Accumulating evidence indicates that in addiction, the frontal-striatal circuits involved
in limbic reward and impulsive action are relatively hyperactive, while the executive control circuits are
relatively hypoactive. Thus, intervention efforts should be directed at either decreasing the relative activity of
the impulsive reward circuit or increasing the relative activity of the executive control circuits. Transcranial
magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive, FDA-approved treatment for depression which is also being
investigated for as a possible treatment for smoking cessation. The goal of this project is to use the novel theta
burst stimulation (TBS) protocol to induce sustainable decreases and increases in the impulsive and executive
control circuits, respectively. To do so, we will apply an attenuating form of TBS to the ventromedial prefrontal
cortex to target the impulsive reward circuit and a potentiating form of TBS to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
to target the executive control circuit. We will then investigate the efficacy of these protocols for reducing a
range of smoking measures, including cigarette valuation, delay discounting, cigarette self-administration, and
brain reactivity to smoking cues. The results from these investigations will pave a clear pathway for the
systematic development of neural-circuit based strategies as treatments for tobacco use and dependence.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9858315
- **Project number:** 5R01DA044471-04
- **Recipient organization:** WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Warren K Bickel
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $623,712
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-11-06 → 2022-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9858315

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9858315, Translational approaches to TMS treatment development for smoking (5R01DA044471-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9858315. Licensed CC0.

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