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

本子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的众多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能已经从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是中心的，不一定是研究者的机构。在世界上许多国家，驾驶是日常生活的一项重要活动。安全驾驶需要几个正在进行的过程的协调，包括注意力、感知、记忆和执行功能。使用大麻后，这些能力的任何损害都可能导致不安全驾驶。已经进行了几项研究，研究了在模拟和实际情况下，急性使用大麻对驾驶的影响。虽然这些研究表明，严重使用大麻会影响司机成功完成驾驶任务的能力，但很少有人探讨司机失误的哪些部分最容易受到大麻的影响。了解在大麻影响下产生的错误类型对于开发用于大麻损伤的路边清醒测试至关重要。先前的研究表明，女性对大麻使用对视觉空间感知和运动表现的影响具有性别倾斜性。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，但在这方面的研究很少。我们建议研究性别对急性大麻使用后驾驶表现和认知的影响。第五名男性和50名偶尔吸食大麻的女性将参与这个项目。其中一半将接受中等剂量的大麻（约20毫克四氢大麻酚），另一半将通过有节奏的吸烟协议接受安慰剂。我们假设急性使用大麻会加重模拟驾驶时的错误，女性更容易受到这些影响。

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.