DOES GENDER INFLUENCE THE EFFECTS OF ACUTE MARIJUANA USE ON DRIVING?

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Driving is a key activity of daily living in many countries around the world. Safe driving requires the coordination of several ongoing processes including attention, perception, memory, and executive functions. Impairment of any of these capacities following marijuana use may cause unsafe driving. Several studies have been performed examining the effects of acute marijuana use on driving in both simulated and on-the-road settings. While these studies have demonstrated that acute marijuana use affects a driver's ability to successfully complete driving tasks, few have explored which components of driver error are most vulnerable to the effects of marijuana. An understanding of error types made under the influence of marijuana is critical in development of road-side sobriety tests for marijuana impairment. Prior studies have shown gender liability in females to the effects of marijuana use on visuospatial perception and motor performance. While these findings implicate potential gender differences in driving performance following acute marijuana use, little work has been performed in this area. We propose to examine the influence of gender on driving performance and cognition following acute marijuana use. Fifthy male and 50 female occasional marijuana users will participate in this project. Half will receive a moderate dose of marijuana (~20 mg tetrahydrocannabinol) and half will receive a placebo via a paced smoking protocol. We hypothesize acute marijuana use will compound errors made during simulated driving and women will be more vulnerable to these effects.