After stuffing your face with < enter favourite food >, you invariably feel full. You simply can’t eat anymore. This satiety is not an aversive experience, but rather an avoidance response. Apparently, smokers also feel this satiety when it comes to their nicotine intake. They can titrate their nicotine intake to avoid the noxious effects of high levels of nicotine.

How does this come about?

The following paper from Tuesta et al., looks at the circuitry behind the phenomenon.

Sources:

Tuesta LM, Chen Z, Duncan A, Fowler CD, Ishikawa M, Lee BR, Liu XA, Lu Q, Cameron M, Hayes MR, Kamenecka TM, Pletcher M, Kenny PJ. GLP-1 acts on habenular avoidance circuits to control nicotine intake.Nat Neurosci. 2017 May;20(5):708-716.

Fowler, C.D. & Kenny, P.J. Intravenous nicotine self-administration and cue-induced

reinstatement in mice: effects of nicotine dose, rate of drug infusion and prior

instrumental training. Neuropharmacology 61, 687–698 (2011).