The Interaction Of Reward Message And Prohibition Meaasge In No Smoking Signs

The no smoking signs are typically consisted of the smoking symbols and prohibition symbols,which represent common examples of reward message and prohibition message competition.In this study,we take the no smoking signs as an example to explore how the reward message and prohibition message interact each other in neural with both electroencephalogram(EEG)and functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI).In addition,prior work has shown the effect of prohibition symbol in discouraging smoking.However,it remains unknown whether the smoking symbol contained in the no smoking signs would dampen or enhance the effectiveness of the no smoking signs in smoking prohibition.This study evaluate how smoking symbols within no smoking signs influence their effectiveness and explore its influence on neural response.In total,93 male and 4 female smokers were included.To test the effect of smoking symbols on the no smoking signs-induced cravings,30 male smokers were asked to rate the cravings for each smoking symbol and each no smoking sign.Besides,they were asked to rate the inhibition for each prohibition symbol.To explore the neural basis of the smoking symbol processing,33 male smokers responded to the same no smoking signs and smoking symbols along with their control images under both functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalogram.The functional magnetic resonance imaging aimed to reveal the brain regions that the cigarette and prohibition interact each other.The electroencephalogram aimed to reveal the time order that the smoking effect and the prohibition effect occurred in time.The combination analysis of them aimed to reveal the brain activation in dynamic.Finally,30 male smokers and 4 female smokers repeated the self-reported craving rating task except that they finished the Tobacco Craving Questionnaire before and after craving ratings for the no smoking signs or the smoking symbols.Moreover,the 30 male smokers finished the self-reported attention rating for no smoking signs to verify the attention difference induced by different no smoking signs.We found that the no smoking signs-induced cravings were negatively correlated with the prohibition symbol-induced inhibition(r=-0.62,p=0.001)and the smoking symbol-induced cravings(r=-0.52,p=0.005).Mediation analysis of the fMRI data indicated that activation of the inferior frontal gyrus and precuneus were the neural basis of cigarette and prohibition interaction as their activation mediated both the correlation between the smoking symbol-induced cravings and no smoking signinduced craving and the correlation between the prohibition symbol-induced inhibition and no smoking sign-induced cravings.EEG data revealed that a cluster with an N200 from 126 ms to 232 ms and a cluster with a slow positive wave from 284 ms to 782 ms showed response for the cigarette stimuli(than the cigarette control stimuli).A cluster with a later positive potential form 602 ms 920 ms showed response for the prohibition stimuli(than the prohibition control stimuli),which was occurred significant after the cigarette response.The combination analysis of the EEG data and fMRI data showed that activation of the inferior frontal gyrus and precuneus was first enhanced with the enhancement of smoking effect,and then weakened with the enhancement of the prohibition effect.Moreover,the stronger the smoking symbols induced-craving is,the stronger the cigarette effect(slow positive waves)and the prohibition effect(late positive potentials)are.The larger the cigarette effect is,the larger the prohibition effect is.Moreover,the amplitude differences between the prohibition effect and cigarette effect were negatively correlated with the no smoking signs-induced cravings.Finally,we found that both the amplitudes of the late positive potentials and the the amplitudes of the slow positive waves were correlated with the amplitudes of N200,whose amplitudes were positively correlated with the rated attention grabbed scores by the no smoking sign.These results suggested that both the cigarette effect and the prohibition effect were related to the attention grabbed by the no smoking sign.Additionally,we found a decreased Tobacco Craving Questionnaire score for the no smoking signs indicating the capability of no smoking signs in decreasing smoking.Beyond offering insights about competing cues that strong reward message may contribute to better prohibition,our study provides tobacco control policymakers empirical evidence for selecting no smoking sign most effective:those combining strong smoking symbol and prohibition symbol.Besides,our findings showed the strong attention in the competition of smoking symbol and prohibition symbol is beneficial for decreasing no smoking sign-induced craving.