Figure 4.

Smoking cessation coincides with a prominent decrease in NAc‐mPFC functional connectivity in a mixed group of SBP and CBP (n = 9). Functional connectivity was normalized with respect to the visit immediately preceding cessation, and measurements were aligned at the same visit (“pre”). Of these nine subjects, there were four CBP, three SBPp, one SBPr, and one SBP subject who was lost to follow‐up and could not be classified as persisting or recovering. The latter subject quit smoking between visits 1 and 2, three CBP quit smoking between visits 2 and 3, and the remaining subjects all quit between visits 3 and 4. This variability in cessation visit reduces the number of observations at visits distant from the date of cessation. Nevertheless, the only major source of variability throughout this period coincides with smoking cessation, which was statistically significant (P = 0.007, n = 9, paired t‐test). Mean ± SEM. Gray error bars indicate sparse data and limited inferential abilities. Number of observations indicated for each visit.