Congratulations to Deyar Asmaro (above, with his mother at right), who received a prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship this summer from Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his upcoming PhD research: Out of sight, out of mind: Do electrophysiological markers elicited by nicotine-related visual cues predict relapse in a sample of adult smokers?

Deyar’s master’s thesis examined  the brains of marijuana addicts and his PhD research will examine the brains of nicotine addicts who are trying to quit. As we know, tobacco is the number one cause of preventable death in the world today, exceeding the number of annual deaths from car accidents, suicide, murder, AIDS, and illicit drug use combined. He hopes that his research will lead to a better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying tobacco addiction, which will lead to more effective intervention and prevention programs. All of his research work has been in SFU’s Department of Psychology, as part of Dr. Mario Liotti’s Affective and Developmental Neuroscience Lab.

This isn’t Deyar’s first award by far. As an undergraduate, he received the 2008 Terry Fox Gold Medal and as a master’s student, he received a Arthur and Ancie Fouks Graduate Entrance Scholarship in Public Service and a Fredrick Banting and Charles Best Master Award. He’s also a world-class expert in martial arts.

Scans may help pinpoint addiction centres in the brain

• Deyar’s profile in the Affective and Developmental Neuroscience Lab, SFU Department of Psychology
• Master’s Thesis: The neural correlates of marijuana addiction: Differences in the processing of drug-related and emotional pictures between addicted versus healthy controls
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