Effects of chronic marijuana use on brain activity during monetary decision-making.
Jatin G Vaidya, Robert I Block, Daniel S O'Leary, Laura B Ponto, Mohamed M Ghoneim, Antoine Bechara
Neuropsychopharmacology February 2012 DOI: 10.1038/npp.2011.227 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Case-control neuroimaging study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Chronic marijuana users and control participants |
| Duration | Approximately 24 hours of monitored marijuana abstinence before imaging |
| Measures | Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), [(15)O]water PET imaging, regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) |
| Topics | Cannabis |
| Key findings | Chronic marijuana users performed equally well as controls on the standard Iowa Gambling Task but significantly worse on a variant version. They showed greater ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity than controls on the standard task and greater cerebellar activity on both versions, and longer duration of use was associated with greater vmPFC activity. The authors suggest chronic users more strongly recruit decision-making, reward, and probabilistic-learning circuitry. |
Abstract
Marijuana (MJ) acutely acts on cannabinoid receptors that are found in numerous brain regions, including those involved in reward processing and decision-making. However, it remains unclear how long-term, chronic MJ use alters reward-based decision-making. In the present study, using [(15)O]water PET imaging, we measured brain activity in chronic MJ users, who underwent monitored abstinence from MJ for approximately 24 h before imaging, and control participants, while they took part in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a monetary decision making task that strongly relies on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). During PET imaging, participants took part in the standard and a variant version of the IGT as well as a control task. Chronic MJ users performed equally well on the standard IGT, but significantly worse than controls on the variant IGT. Chronic MJ users and control subjects showed increased regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the vmPFC on both versions of the IGT compared to the control task. In the two-group comparison, chronic MJ users showed significantly greater rCBF than controls in the vmPFC on the standard IGT and greater activity in the cerebellum on both versions of the IGT. Furthermore, duration of use, but not age of first use, was associated with greater activity in the vmPFC. Thus, chronic MJ users tend to strongly recruit neural circuitry involved in decision-making and reward processing (vmPFC), and probabilistic learning (cerebellum) when performing the IGT.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on cannabis, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoked Cannabis' Psychomotor and Neurocognitive Effects in Occasional and Frequent Smokers Occasional (<2x/week) and frequent (≥4x/week) cannabis smokers | 2015 | Controlled within-subjects study | n = 25 |
| Dissociable effects of cannabis with and without cannabidiol on the human brain’s resting-state functional connectivity Healthy volunteers experienced with cannabis but not regular users | 2019 | Within-subjects experimental design | n = 17 |
| Which biological and self-report measures of cannabis use predict cannabis dependency and acute psychotic-like effects? Young cannabis users | 2018 | Observational study (naturalistic, within-subject counterbalanced design) | n = 410 |
| Cannabis Essential Oil: A Preliminary Study for the Evaluation of the Brain Effects Healthy volunteers | 2018 | Experimental study | n = 5 |
| Coming off cannabis: a cognitive and magnetic resonance imaging study in patients with multiple sclerosis Patients with multiple sclerosis who began using cannabis after disease onset, used it... | 2019 | Quasi-experimental study with odd-even allocation | n = 40 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 9
- The neuropsychopharmacology of cannabis: A review of human imaging studies Pharmacology & Therapeutics October 20, 2018
- Long-term consequences of adolescent cannabinoid exposure in adult psychopathology Frontiers in Neuroscience November 10, 2014
- Differences in Inhibitory Control and Resting Brain Metabolism between Older Chronic Users of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or Cannabidiol (CBD)—A Pilot Study Brain Sciences June 23, 2022
- Dose-related reductions in prefrontal recruitment during cognitive reappraisal following oral delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in posttraumatic stress disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology July 16, 2026
- The Behavioral Sequelae of Cannabis Use in Healthy People: A Systematic Review Frontiers in Psychiatry February 16, 2021
and 4 more in the library
Cites 8
- Cannabis use and memory brain function in adolescent boys: a cross-sectional multicenter functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry April 14, 2010
- Decision making of heavy cannabis users on the Iowa Gambling Task: stronger association with THC of hair analysis than with personality traits of the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire. European Addiction Research 2009
- How do you feel--now? The anterior insula and human awareness. Nature reviews. Neuroscience 2009
- Elevated impulsivity and impaired decision-making cognition in heavy users of MDMA (“Ecstasy”) Psychopharmacology January 20, 2006
- Neural substrates of faulty decision-making in abstinent marijuana users. Neuroimage June 2005
and 3 more in the library