Some stroke victims who suffered damage to an area of the brain called the insula lost the desire to smoke -- a startling revelation to researchers who never considered that this part of the brain was involved in addiction.

The Baltimore Sun reported Jan. 26 that researchers found that of 19 smokers whose insula had been damaged by stroke, 13 quit smoking almost immediately. One subject, who had smoked 40 unfiltered cigarettes daily from ages 14-38, completely lost the desire to smoke after his stroke, to the point where he could not even stand the smell of cigarette smoke on other people.

Researchers don't know why the damage to the insula blunted desire for cigarettes in some smokers but not others, however.

"It's a really tremendous paper, one that points us in a whole new direction," said Steven Grant, chief of the clinical neuroscience branch at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "It says: This is a brain area the addiction field needs to focus a lot of attention on."

The study was published in the Jan. 26, 2007 issue of the journal Science.