Since regional activity was normalized to whole brain activity in at least some of these studies, and whole brain activity has been found to decrease with nicotine or cigarette administration, the regional findings presented here may represent either increased regional activity or, possibly, less of a decrease in regional activity than in other brain areas. Regional decreases in activity are generally not seen with nicotine or cigarette administration, though at least two studies found relatively decreased activity in the amygdala, left (Rose et al. 2003) and right (Zubieta et al. 2001)).
