In a new study , a group of international researchers enquire whether adolescent cannabis employment has any burden on cortical thickness in the brains of adolescent .
Very few studies have looked at the linkup betweencannabis use in adolescentsand its impact on neurodevelopment , and although study inanimal modelshave pointed towards altered neurodevelopment withlasting behavioral effectswith early cannabis use , studies in humans have providedconflicting results .
Now , report in the journalJAMA Psychiatry , researchers showthat cannabis use during youth might be associated with changes in neurodevelopment – specifically , the cutting of cortical regions rich in cannabinoid 1 receptors ( CB1 receptors ) .
In the field , the researchers used longitudinal neuroimaging and behavioral data ( self - cover ) from theIMAGEN studydata set and investigated 2,223 school child from 8 different European region who were all or so 14 years of age .
Out of that age group , the authors distinguish 799 participants ( 450 Female and 349 Male ) that had not used cannabis at a service line of about 14 years . They were followed up after a five - class stop to determine changes in their cannabis use drug abuse during adolescence while havingMagnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI)data of their brains available .
Accounting for various factors such as age , sex , alcohol use , and lifetime marihuana use , the brain imagingdata showed that hemp had a dose - qualified essence on age - relate cortical thinning of certain brain regions in adolescent that regularly used it over the five year menstruation . Those that used more cannabis during this period had more cortical thinning in these region , according to the MRI data .
The researchers argue that the service line cortical heaviness was not associated with lifetime cannabis usance , which suggests the thinning they observed was not associated with any pre - existing difference in anatomic brain structure , but rather was a result of their cannabis use during this evolution level during adolescence .
Furthermore , the author pointed out that region that had cortical cutting were also regions that are commonly rich in CB1 sensory receptor , one of the receptors that form part of the endocannabinoid system , and to which bothTHC and CBD – the two main compounds in marihuana – can bind .
It is deserving mention that the study does come with some caveats . Although it might be one of the largest longitudinal brainiac imagination studies of juvenile hemp use to date , the findings are still reliant on ego - coverage to settle thing like the amount of substance used . The investigator also had no information on the type and character of cannabis that was used , make it difficult to generalize the finding .
It is also worth pointing out that because of honorable limitations that involve positron emission tomography ( PET ) scanning in minor due to certain risk that are involve , the authors could not perform PET scans on the player and had to utilise a unlike data set to quantify the levels of CB1 sensory receptor in the cortical regions of involvement and correspond that to the thinning regions in the 799 adolescent participant . So , therefore , they ca n’t say for sure that those areas that showed cortical thinning in the study player were productive in CB1 receptors , but only that those area , in general , are rich in CB1 receptors .
Nevertheless , more encephalon tomography studies will have to be done to further ascertain what impingement early cannabis habit might have on the developing human mentality , and how thinning of cortical regions might leave in behavioral changes later in life .
" We describe evidence of an association between teen cannabis use and vary cortical heaviness development in a longitudinal sample of young . " the source wrote in their write - up . " The findings underscore the grandness of further longitudinal studies of juvenile cannabis utilization , particularly give increasing trends in the legalization of recreational cannabis use . "
