A new study finds that adolescent smokers whose mothers smoked while pregnant are more likely to have attention problems, Reuters reported April 11.

Researcher Leslie K. Jacobsen of Yale University School of Medicine and colleagues conducted tests of visual and auditory attentiveness with a group of 181 teens, including 92 who had been exposed to smoking in utero and 67 who were current daily smokers. The study authors found that female study subjects who were current smokers and whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were more likely to have visual and auditory attention deficits; their male counterparts were more likely to have listening problems, but not visual deficits.

Nonsmokers who weren't exposed to smoking in the womb performed best on the tests, the researchers found. Brain scans revealed that certain parts of the brain worked harder among nicotine-exposed teens as they worked on the tasks.

"The present findings underscore the importance of developing smoking prevention programs that target women of childbearing age and of developing effective programs for tobacco dependence that do not involve nicotine replacement," the researchers said.

The study was published online in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.