n the growth of a baby in utero and causes increased mortality during the delivery, increased incidence of brain damage, learning disabilities, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Attention Deficit Disorder. Ironically, prenatal exposure to nicotine may result in the newborn having an attention deficit problem, while nicotine is used as a primary treatment for Attention Deficit Disorder.Sudden Infant Death is triggered by a period of asphyxia during sleep. Normally the brains respiratory centre will detect the plummeting oxygen levels and make the baby breathe deeper while at the same time, a rush of adrenalin makes the heart beat faster. Prenatal exposure to nicotine, however, may affect these survival systems and the baby may simply suffocate. Nicotine is called a neuro-teratogen, that is it damages the developing brain. Nicotine causes the absence of neurons (which enable us to think and act) in certain parts of the brain. It also causes functional damage where the nerve cells dont work properly. They are either incorrectly wired up, or they are quiescent where they should be active. In an ordinary developing brain, acetylcholine flows from the neuron to its target cell, while a cholinergic neuron produces acetylcholine. Some of its target cells contain a specific receptor protein called a nicotinic cholinergic receptor, which responds to nicotine and acetylcholine. By depolarising these target cells, nicotine tells that cell to stop dividing. This is particularly important in the nervous system because once nerve cells make the decision to stop dividing, they can never divide again. Nicotine causes this crucial step in brain development to occur prematurely due to its mimicking effect of acetylcholine.It also appears that females (both humans and animals) are more sensitive to the actions of nicotine than males. This suggests that there are differences between the male and female brain, which is extremely interesting in the d...
