In a study, researchers led by senior investigator Todd Heatherton, and graduate student Dylan Wagner of Dartmouth College, found that a scene in a movie that has a person smoking in it entices a viewer who is a smoker.

They were trying to find out whether the parts of the brain that monitors the routine gesture could be triggered by seeing someone smoking.

Dr. Wagner said, "Our findings support prior studies that show smokers who exit a movie that had images of smoking are more likely to crave a cigarette, compared with ones who watched a movie without them."

However, he added the that more research is required to further confirm the findings and say how much watching a smoking scene in a movie affects the smokers' brains.

During the study they have observed 17 smokers and 17 non-smokers who were given to watch the first 30 minutes of a movie Matchstick Men while they were being monitored through Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI).

The movie was deliberately chosen as it has frequent smoking scenes throughout. When they watched the movie, the smokers had more active brain responses as compared to the non-smokers.

Dr. Wagner added, "Smokers trying to quit are frequently advised to avoid other smokers and remove smoking paraphernalia from their homes, but they might not think to avoid a movie with smoking content."

Dr. Scott Huettel from Duke University, an expert in the neuroscience of decision-making who was unaffiliated with the study, agreed that there is a very close relationship between visual cues and addictive urges.