Understanding Functional Interactions Between Cannabinoid and Dopamine Signaling Pathways: Impacts on Emotional and Cognitive Processing

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: To make sense of the world, the brain must accurately interpret and transduce the emotional and cognitive significance of incoming sensory information. How does the brain process this complex barrage of sensory information? In the mammalian brain, two important neurotransmitters involved in this task are the cannabinoid and dopamine (DA) systems. Our NSERC program explores how specific phytocannabinoids found in cannabis, Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), control the mesocorticolimbic DA system and how this regulates emotional salience processing, memory formation and cognition. These cannabinoids represent ideal research tools to explore emotional and cognitive processing in the brain. Not only do they powerfully modulate emotional and sensory perception, they interact with diverse neuropharmacological and interconnected brain regions linked to these psychological phenomena; including, the prefrontal cortex (PFC), nucleus accumbens (NAc), ventral tegmental area (VTA), and ventral hippocampus (vHIPP), brain regions that are critical for processing emotion, memory and contextual information while we navigate the world. The overarching goal of our NSERC program is to determine how cannabinoids modulate the activity of these brain areas and regulate the brain's DA transmission system, which is fundamental for processing emotional information, associative learning and cognition. SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC APPROACH: Our lab uses a wide array of cutting-edge and integrative behavioural, molecular, electrophysiological and neural imaging techniques that allow us to address our research questions from the level of the single neuron, to the behavioural systems levels of analysis. We have made extensive innovations in our imaging techniques and have recently refined several new technologies including Matrix-Assisted Laser Deionization Imaging  and RNAScope, allowing us to image specific molecules and relevant biomarkers in highly specific brain circuits. NOVELTY AND EXPECTED SIGNIFICANCE: Our research program addresses one of the most critical questions at the interface of psychology and neuroscience: how does the brain regulate and process emotionally salient information? Using behavioural conditioning paradigms paired with in vivo neuronal electrophysiology and molecular imaging, our ongoing studies are identifying novel and complex neural mechanisms controlling emotional processing, learning and memory, at the neurochemical, neuronal and systems-levels of analysis. In addition, our research program is revealing exciting new information about how specific cannabinoids found in cannabis can control specific brain circuits that regulate emotional memory formation and cognition. This ongoing research is highly relevant given the growing significance of the Canadian Cannabis Industry and in informing the development of effective public regulatory strategies for cannabis-related products and future innovations.