"The weaker responsivity of the ventral striatum to regard anticipation in prenatally exposed adolescents may represent a risk factor for substance use and development of addiction later in life.

Researchers from Technische Universitat Dresden in Germany compared 177 teens between the ages 13 to 15 who had been exposed to cigarettes prenatally to 177 teens whose mothers did not smoke while expecting.

Exposure to cigarette smoke in the womb may interfere with the brain's reward system, and make children more vulnerable to addictions.

Indeed, they saw less activity in this area of the brain among the teens whose were exposed to smoke in the womb compared to those who were not, which resulted in longer times to respond to the target.

This result highlights the need for education and preventive measures to reduce smoking during pregnancy."the study authors wrote.

To test how the teens reacted to being presented with a reward, which simulated the need to satisfy an addiction the participants were placed in a functional MRI scan to record their brain activity while they performed specific computer-based tasks.

The results certainly don't suggest that cigarette smoking during pregnancy always causes addictions or substance abuse problems in children later, but they do add to the growing body of data documenting the harms that nicotine can have on proper fetal development.

Children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also show inhibited activity in the ventral striatum, and other studies linked lower activity in this region among teens to more risky behaviors, such as reckless driving, that extend beyond taking illegal drugs.

With some women still smoking while pregnant, they hope that these data will fuel more education efforts that inform mothers-to-be about the dangers of smoking for the unborn. Thank you.