Abstract: Nicotine dependence is the main cause of cigarette addiction, which is characterized by uncontrollable compulsion of nicotine-seeking, impulsive and continuous nicotine in-taking，in order to experience euphoria and happiness, and to avoid withdrawal symptoms without nicotine. This article reviewed some research findings of neurobiological mechanism of nicotine dependence from both animal model and human brain imaging study, which revealed that mesolimbic dopamine system is the important neurobiological basis of nicotine dependence. However, previous studies mostly took a static approach, but rarely considered the dynamic process of nicotine dependence; there are also lack of enough evidences of the differences between nicotine dependence and other drugs dependence, which will direct the future studies.

Key words: nicotine-dependence, dopamine, mesolimbic-system, ventral-tegmental-area, brain-imaging