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Cannabis increases susceptibility to false memory

With the growing global acceptance of cannabis and its widespread use by eyewitnesses and suspects in legal cases, understanding the popular drug’s ramifications for memory is a pressing need. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, we examined the acute and delayed effects of Δ9-te...

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Autores principales: Kloft, Lilian, Otgaar, Henry, Blokland, Arjan, Monds, Lauren A., Toennes, Stefan W., Loftus, Elizabeth F., Ramaekers, Johannes G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7060677/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32041881
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1920162117
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author Kloft, Lilian
Otgaar, Henry
Blokland, Arjan
Monds, Lauren A.
Toennes, Stefan W.
Loftus, Elizabeth F.
Ramaekers, Johannes G.
author_facet Kloft, Lilian
Otgaar, Henry
Blokland, Arjan
Monds, Lauren A.
Toennes, Stefan W.
Loftus, Elizabeth F.
Ramaekers, Johannes G.
author_sort Kloft, Lilian
collection PubMed
description With the growing global acceptance of cannabis and its widespread use by eyewitnesses and suspects in legal cases, understanding the popular drug’s ramifications for memory is a pressing need. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, we examined the acute and delayed effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) intoxication on susceptibility to false memory in 64 healthy volunteers. Memory was tested immediately (encoding and retrieval under drug influence) and 1 wk later (retrieval sober). We used three different methods (associative word lists and two misinformation tasks using virtual reality). Across all methods, we found evidence for enhanced false-memory effects in intoxicated participants. Specifically, intoxicated participants showed higher false recognition in the associative word-list task both at immediate and delayed test than controls. This yes bias became increasingly strong with decreasing levels of association between studied and test items. In a misinformation task, intoxicated participants were more susceptible to false-memory creation using a virtual-reality eyewitness scenario and virtual-reality perpetrator scenario. False-memory effects were mostly restricted to the acute-intoxication phase. Cannabis seems to increase false-memory proneness, with decreasing strength of association between an event and a test item, as assessed by different false-memory paradigms. Our findings have implications for how and when the police should interview suspects and eyewitnesses.
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spelling pubmed-70606772020-03-13 Cannabis increases susceptibility to false memory Kloft, Lilian Otgaar, Henry Blokland, Arjan Monds, Lauren A. Toennes, Stefan W. Loftus, Elizabeth F. Ramaekers, Johannes G. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Social Sciences With the growing global acceptance of cannabis and its widespread use by eyewitnesses and suspects in legal cases, understanding the popular drug’s ramifications for memory is a pressing need. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, we examined the acute and delayed effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) intoxication on susceptibility to false memory in 64 healthy volunteers. Memory was tested immediately (encoding and retrieval under drug influence) and 1 wk later (retrieval sober). We used three different methods (associative word lists and two misinformation tasks using virtual reality). Across all methods, we found evidence for enhanced false-memory effects in intoxicated participants. Specifically, intoxicated participants showed higher false recognition in the associative word-list task both at immediate and delayed test than controls. This yes bias became increasingly strong with decreasing levels of association between studied and test items. In a misinformation task, intoxicated participants were more susceptible to false-memory creation using a virtual-reality eyewitness scenario and virtual-reality perpetrator scenario. False-memory effects were mostly restricted to the acute-intoxication phase. Cannabis seems to increase false-memory proneness, with decreasing strength of association between an event and a test item, as assessed by different false-memory paradigms. Our findings have implications for how and when the police should interview suspects and eyewitnesses. National Academy of Sciences 2020-03-03 2020-02-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7060677/ /pubmed/32041881 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1920162117 Text en Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Social Sciences
Kloft, Lilian
Otgaar, Henry
Blokland, Arjan
Monds, Lauren A.
Toennes, Stefan W.
Loftus, Elizabeth F.
Ramaekers, Johannes G.
Cannabis increases susceptibility to false memory
title Cannabis increases susceptibility to false memory
title_full Cannabis increases susceptibility to false memory
title_fullStr Cannabis increases susceptibility to false memory
title_full_unstemmed Cannabis increases susceptibility to false memory
title_short Cannabis increases susceptibility to false memory
title_sort cannabis increases susceptibility to false memory
topic Social Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7060677/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32041881
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1920162117
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