Marijuana's coup de grass to memory

ISO2BWELL

Be interesting to find out if this study has any merit beyond their research. .ISO
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Marijuana's coup de grass to memory

MRI scans illustrating the damage long-term cannabis use can cause.
Nick Miller

June 4, 2008

LONG-TERM, heavy cannabis use causes significant damage to parts of the brain that regulate memory and emotion, Australian researchers have found in a world-first study.

The team scanned the brains of heavy users and found never-seen-before shrinkage of the parts known as the hippocampus and amygdala.

The changes were the equivalent of minor brain damage or premature ageing, said researcher Dr Murat Yucel, from the University of Melbourne and the Orygen Research Centre.

The researchers took high-resolution MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans of the brains of 15 men, average age 39, who had smoked more than five joints daily for over 10 years.

When compared to scans of non-users, they showed a drop in the size of the hippocampus by 12% and a 7% shrinkage of the amygdala. "That may not sound like a lot, but believe me it's a lot of neurons and connections and cells that would be very important (to normal brain function)," Dr Yucel said.

The study was also a breakthrough because it showed a clear relationship between the amount of cannabis and the quantity of brain changes, psychotic experiences and memory problems in the subjects.

"This is the first time science has shown that everybody is vulnerable if you use long enough and heavily enough," Dr Yucel said. "It does not just apply to a small group of particularly vulnerable people."

Damage was likely (but not yet proven) to be greater in people who started using at a younger age, especially adolescents, he said.

The hippocampus helps turn an experience into a memory that can last longer than a few minutes. It has also been linked to navigational abilities — taxi drivers have been found to have bigger-than-usual hippocampi.

The amygdala also helps lay down permanent memories and cues our emotional response to the world. Damage to this part of the brain can lead to emotional problems such as irrational fear or phobias.

The brain damage was mirrored in the abilities of the study subjects.
About half reported some form of paranoia and social withdrawal, and their ability to recall lists of words was as if they were 16 years older.

The research was published this week in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Dr Yucel's team plans to expand on this study, to look at the effects on younger brains and to measure the effects of different levels of marijuana use.

"One of the key questions is whether there is a safe level of use," said study co-author Dr Nadia Solowij, from the University of Wollongong.

"That's something we can't answer at the moment."

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green_nobody

15 men, great study, with that small test group they could have also proved that toking turns you into a cat...

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Keep the gun oiled and the thumb green!

http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp...Canada-eng.MP3

ISO2BWELL

ROTFL...ain't that the truth. FIFTEEN men??? Seems rather one-sided...did the women get smarter and they didn't want to show that?

I would like to know where they found 15 guys who would burn 5 jays a day, or more, every day...FOR TEN YEARS...

ISO

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jangel

hey, what was the question???......I think I forgot........must be a stoner!!!!

Nothing we didn't already know, and what about the good it does? Any studies on the added detail to art or writing? What about pain releif or did it just kill that part of the brain? How about nausea control? Kind of one sided.

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Life,
j-angel


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scott06

This may be true but not in the way the study suggests...the relationship between emotion and memory is complex and there is some evidence that marijuana effects that part of the brain...however that effect may well be positive...consider all the things that you see, think about, hear, smell ect with or without conscious awareness...consider the impact each of these internal and external data can have...it would be overwhelming if we didn't have mechanisms for forgeting (espcially short term memory)

Some minds/bodies/people may well benifit from letting more things go...rather than processing it in short and long term memory and the accompanying emotional reaction...see Michael Polan's book The Botany of Desire for more on this