Cannabis customers exhibit higher susceptibility to false memories
A brand new study published in the American journal with the highest impact factor in world-wide, Molecular Psychiatry, shows that consumers of cannabis are more prone to experiencing memories that are false.
The analysis was conducted by researchers from the Human Neuropsychopharmacology group at the Biomedical Research Institute of Hospital de Sant Pau and from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, in collaboration with all the Brain Cognition and Plasticity group of the Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research (IDIBELL - University of Barcelona). Among the known effects of have this drug is the recollection difficulties it can cause. Continual consumers show more difficulties compared to the overall populace in retaining new info and recollections that are regaining. The new study also reveals that the chronic use of cannabis causes distortions in memory, which makes it easier for bogus or fantastic recollections to seem.
On occasions, the brain can remember things which never occurred. Our recollection consists of a malleable procedure that is created increasingly and hence is subject to distortions or false memories. These recollection "mistakes" are seen more often in several neurological and psychiatric disorders, but may also be observed in the healthy people, and become more common as we age. Some of the most common false memories we have are of scenarios from our youth which we believe to remember since the folks around us have clarified them to us over and over again. Maintaining an adequate control over the "veracity" of our memories is a complex cognitive task which allows us to have our own awareness of reality as well as shapes our behaviour, predicated on previous experiences.
In the study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers from Sant Pau and Bellvitge compared a group of chronic consumers of cannabis to a healthy control group on learning a succession of words while they worked. After several minutes they were more shown the first words, together with new words which were either semantically related or unrelated. All participants were asked to identify the words belonging to the initial list. Cannabis consumers believed to have seen the new words that were related that were semantically to a degree that was higher than participants in the control group. Researchers found that cannabis consumers revealed a lower activation in areas of the brain related to memory processes and to the overall control of cognitive resources by using magnetic resonance imaging.
The analysis found memory deficiencies despite the fact that participants had quit consuming cannabis one month before participating in the study. Although they had not have the drug in a month, the more the patient had used cannabis throughout their life, key to keeping memories, the lower the level of action in the hippocampus.
The outcomes show PTSD online that cannabis consumers are somewhat more vulnerable to enduring memory distortions, even weeks after not have the drug. This indicates that cannabis has a protracted effect on the brain mechanisms which allow us to distinguish between real and fictional events. These recollection mistakes can cause issues due to the effects the testimonies of their victims as well as witnesses can have, for example, in legal cases. Nevertheless, from a clinical point of view, the results point to the truth that a chronic use of cannabis could worsen difficulties with age-associated memory loss.