Journal
DRUG AND ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE
Volume 155, Issue -, Pages 275-283Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.06.016
Keywords
Cortical thickness; Volume; Marijuana; Young adults; Thalamus; Fusiform gyrus
Categories
Funding
- National Institute on Drug Abuse [K01DA034028, R03DA022482, R01DA037265]
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [K01AA014651]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background: The prevalence of marijuana (MJ) use among youth and its legalization for medical or recreational use has intensified public health endeavors of understanding MJ effects on brain structure and function. Studies indicate that MJ use is related to impaired cognitive performance, and altered functional brain activation and chemistry in adolescents and adults, but MJ effects on brain morphology in emerging adults are less understood. Methods: Fifteen MJ users (age 21.8 +/- 3.6, 2 females) and 15 non-user (NU) participants (age 22.3 +/- 3.5, 2 females) were included, demographically matched on age, education and alcohol use. High-resolution structural MR images were acquired at 3 Tesla. Cortical thickness (CT) and volumetric analyses were performed using Freesurfer. A priori regions of interest (ROI) included orbitofrontal and cingulate cortices, amygdala, hippocampus and thalamus. Results: Whole brain CT analysis did not result in significant group differences in a priori ROls but revealed MJ users had significantly less CT (i.e., thinness) in right fusiform gyms (rFG) compared to NU (p < 0.05). Thalamic volume was significantly smaller in MJ users compared to NU (right, p = 0.05; left, p = 0.01) and associated with greater non-planning (p < 0.01) and overall impulsivity (p = 0.04). There were no other group differences. Conclusions: RFG cortical thinness and smaller thalamic volume in emerging adults is associated with MJ abuse. Furthermore, smaller thalamic volume associated with greater impulsivity contributes to growing evidence that the thalamus is neurobiologically perturbed by MJ use. Collectively, altered thalamic and rFG structural integrity may interfere with their known roles in regulating visuoperceptual and object information processing. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available