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

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 在世界上许多国家，开车是一项重要的日常生活活动。安全驾驶需要协调几个正在进行的过程，包括注意力、知觉、记忆和执行功能。在使用大麻后，这些能力中的任何一种都会受到损害，可能会导致不安全驾驶。已经进行了几项研究，考察了在模拟和道路环境中急性使用大麻对驾驶的影响。虽然这些研究表明，大量使用大麻会影响司机成功完成驾驶任务的能力，但很少有人探索司机失误的哪些部分最容易受到大麻影响。了解在大麻影响下犯下的错误类型对于开发大麻损害的路边清醒测试至关重要。先前的研究已经表明，女性对吸食大麻对视觉空间知觉和运动能力的影响存在性别倾向。虽然这些发现暗示了急性吸食大麻后驾驶表现的潜在性别差异，但在这一领域开展的工作很少。我们建议研究性别对急性吸食大麻后驾驶表现和认知的影响。50名男性和50名女性偶尔吸食大麻将参与这一项目。一半人将接受中等剂量的大麻(~20毫克四氢大麻酚)，另一半人将通过步调吸烟方案获得安慰剂。我们假设，大量使用大麻会加剧模拟驾驶过程中犯下的错误，女性更容易受到这些影响的影响。

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.