Understanding marijuana's effects on functional connectivity of the default mode network in patients with schizophrenia and co-occurring cannabis use disorder: A pilot investigation.
Schizophrenia Research April 1, 2018 Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, Adina S Fischer, Angela Henricks et al.
In a pilot study, patients with schizophrenia and cannabis use disorder showed over-connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) at rest, which correlated with more severe positive symptoms, and reduced anticorrelation between the DMN and the executive control network (ECN). After smoking a 3.6% THC cannabis cigarette or ingesting a 15 mg THC pill, DMN hyperconnectivity decreased and DMN-ECN anticorrelation increased. The degree of anticorrelation in healthy controls and in patients after cannabinoid administration positively correlated with working memory performance. The results suggest that DMN connectivity can change, which may inform future treatments targeting circuit-level dysfunction.