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Context dependent differences in working memory related brain activity in heavy cannabis users

RATIONALE: Compromised cognitive control in cannabis use–tempting situations is thought to play a key role in the development of cannabis use disorders. However, little is known about how exposure to cannabis cues and contexts may influence cognitive control and the underlying neural mechanisms in c...

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Autores principales: Kroon, Emese, Kuhns, Lauren, Cousijn, Janna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9110519/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34448889
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-021-05956-y
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author Kroon, Emese
Kuhns, Lauren
Cousijn, Janna
author_facet Kroon, Emese
Kuhns, Lauren
Cousijn, Janna
author_sort Kroon, Emese
collection PubMed
description RATIONALE: Compromised cognitive control in cannabis use–tempting situations is thought to play a key role in the development of cannabis use disorders. However, little is known about how exposure to cannabis cues and contexts may influence cognitive control and the underlying neural mechanisms in cannabis users. OBJECTIVES: Working memory (WM) is an attention reliant executive function central to cognitive control. In this study, we investigated how distracting cannabis words affected WM load–dependent performance and related brain activity in near-daily cannabis users (N = 36) relative to controls (N = 33). METHODS: Brain activity was recorded during a novel N-back flanker WM task with neutral and cannabis flankers added as task-irrelevant distractors. RESULTS: On a behavioural level, WM performance did not differ between groups, and the presence of cannabis flankers did not affect performance. However, in cannabis users compared to controls, the presence of cannabis flankers reduced WM load–related activity in multiple regions, including the insula, thalamus, superior parietal lobe and supramarginal gyrus. CONCLUSIONS: The group specificity of these effects suggest that cannabis users might differ from controls in the way they process cannabis-related cues and that cannabis cue exposure could interfere with other cognitive processes under cognitively demanding circumstances. Future studies should focus on the role of context in cognitive control–related processes like WM and attention to further elucidate potential cognitive impairments in heavy cannabis users and how these relate to loss of control over drug seeking itself. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00213-021-05956-y.
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spelling pubmed-91105192022-05-18 Context dependent differences in working memory related brain activity in heavy cannabis users Kroon, Emese Kuhns, Lauren Cousijn, Janna Psychopharmacology (Berl) Original Investigation RATIONALE: Compromised cognitive control in cannabis use–tempting situations is thought to play a key role in the development of cannabis use disorders. However, little is known about how exposure to cannabis cues and contexts may influence cognitive control and the underlying neural mechanisms in cannabis users. OBJECTIVES: Working memory (WM) is an attention reliant executive function central to cognitive control. In this study, we investigated how distracting cannabis words affected WM load–dependent performance and related brain activity in near-daily cannabis users (N = 36) relative to controls (N = 33). METHODS: Brain activity was recorded during a novel N-back flanker WM task with neutral and cannabis flankers added as task-irrelevant distractors. RESULTS: On a behavioural level, WM performance did not differ between groups, and the presence of cannabis flankers did not affect performance. However, in cannabis users compared to controls, the presence of cannabis flankers reduced WM load–related activity in multiple regions, including the insula, thalamus, superior parietal lobe and supramarginal gyrus. CONCLUSIONS: The group specificity of these effects suggest that cannabis users might differ from controls in the way they process cannabis-related cues and that cannabis cue exposure could interfere with other cognitive processes under cognitively demanding circumstances. Future studies should focus on the role of context in cognitive control–related processes like WM and attention to further elucidate potential cognitive impairments in heavy cannabis users and how these relate to loss of control over drug seeking itself. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00213-021-05956-y. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021-08-27 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC9110519/ /pubmed/34448889 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-021-05956-y Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Investigation
Kroon, Emese
Kuhns, Lauren
Cousijn, Janna
Context dependent differences in working memory related brain activity in heavy cannabis users
title Context dependent differences in working memory related brain activity in heavy cannabis users
title_full Context dependent differences in working memory related brain activity in heavy cannabis users
title_fullStr Context dependent differences in working memory related brain activity in heavy cannabis users
title_full_unstemmed Context dependent differences in working memory related brain activity in heavy cannabis users
title_short Context dependent differences in working memory related brain activity in heavy cannabis users
title_sort context dependent differences in working memory related brain activity in heavy cannabis users
topic Original Investigation
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9110519/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34448889
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-021-05956-y
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