According to a report, the brain scan of a smoker helps identify the chances of quitting smoking. The brain scan shows the chances that the smoker will quit smoking or not. The study was done on 28 heavy smokers involved in smoking cessation program. An MRI scan was done to monitor the brain activity of the participants. They were made to watch television ads, which are meant to quit smoking.

The researchers contacted the participants after a month and found that the participants are smoking five cigarettes a day. Earlier, they used to smoke 21 cigarettes on an average.

The researchers have found considerable changes in the smoking habits of the participants. This habit has helped them to decrease the count. The researchers also found reaction in the medial prefrontal cortex while watching those anti-smoking ads on television. They have linked this to their new habit of less smoking. The researchers also claimed that the activity in the prefrontal cortex is a predicted change in behaviour.

“These results bring us one step closer to the ability to use functional magnetic resonance imaging to select the messages that are most likely to affect behaviour change both at the individual and population levels", an expert in the field said. "It seems that our brain activity may provide information that introspection does not”.