MARIJUANA & COGNITION; CHRONIC AND ACUTE EFFECTS

长期吸食大麻对学习、记忆、 鉴于它的广泛使用，人们的认知受到了严重的关注 对这种药物的使用，尤其是当使用范围逐渐扩大到 近年来出现了较年轻的年龄段。令人惊讶的是，尽管很尖锐 单次吸食大麻对记忆力的损害已被证实 经常被证明的，慢性疾病的实验研究 大麻对学习、记忆和认知的影响一直是 在数量上很少，在方法上薄弱，在 结果。 拟议研究的第一部分将审查 长期非法吸食大麻通过比较“重度”长期吸食者， “轻”的长期用户和非用户在智力上相匹配 在大麻开始使用之前的功能。在非毒品下 强调学习的实验室测试和条件 记住新信息，形成概念，联想 加工、语义记忆提取和精神运动 成绩将统一管理，将标准化考试 强调利用之前的(实验前) 获取的信息。这项研究将确定慢性 与匹配的非吸毒者相比，吸食大麻者受损 在这些测试上，如果是这样，损害是否取决于 长期使用大麻的频率。在接下来的部分 在这项研究中，同样的测试将在吸烟后进行 以确定活性或安慰剂大麻是否 个人测试对长期吸食大麻的敏感性 因为他们对大麻的急性影响很敏感。

Adverse effects of chronic marijuana use on learning, memory, and cognition are of serious concern in view of the widespread use of this drug, especially as use has extended into progressively younger age groups in recent years. Surprisingly, although acute impairment of memory from single marijuana doses has been frequently demonstrated, experimental studies of chronic marijuana effects on learning, memory, and cognition have been few in number, methodologically weak, and ambiguous in outcome. The first portion of the proposed study will examine effects of chronic illicit marijuana use by comparing "heavy" chronic users, "light" chronic users, and non-users matched on intellectual functioning before the onset of marijuana use. Under non-drug conditions, laboratory tests that emphasize learning and remembering new information, concept formation, associative processes, semantic memory retrieval, and psychomotor performance will be administered together will standardized tests that emphasize utilization of previously (pre-experimentally) acquired information. The study will determine whether chronic marijuana users are impaired relative to matched non-users on these tests and, if so, whether the impairments depend on the frequency of chronic marijuana use. In a subsequent portion of the study, the same tests will be administered following smoking of active or placebo marijuana to determine whether the sensitivity of individual test to chronic marijuana use corresponds with their sensitivity to acute effects of marijuana.