Smoking Cannabis Ruins Long Term Memory; Makes Brain Abnormally-shaped
Teenagers who smoke cannabis for three years are found to have poor long-term memory than those who never used the drug.
Researchers from the Northwestern University claimed that pot smokers have an eighteen percent disadvantage compared to those who never abused the drug in a series of long-term memory tests, Northwestern University researchers said via Chicago Sun Times.
Matthew J. Smith, a member of the research team and an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine further said that pot smokers may feel these effects when they get older.
"If you just think about being able to engage in work activities where you should be remembering events at work or information at work, that can be an issue," he said.
According to Mail Online, participants who smoked weed every day for three years are found to have abnormally-shaped hippocampus that are found out using a new computer software to fine-map MRI scans of the hippocampus part of the brain.
"Both our recent studies link the chronic use of marijuana during adolescence to these differences in the shape of brain regions that are critical to memory and that appear to last for at least a few years after people stop using it. It is possible that the abnormal brain structures reveal a pre-existing vulnerability to marijuana abuse. But evidence that the longer the participants were abusing marijuana, the greater the differences in hippocampus shape suggests marijuana may be the cause," Smith said in the study.
The 97 participants in the study are said to have underwent a narrative memory test wherein they have to recall as many details as possible from a pre-designed series of stories. After that exercise, they are instructed to recall again the details in the next 20 to 30 minutes, according to Irish Examiner.
Most of participants are said to be between 16 and 17 who have been smoking cannabis for about three years when the study was conducted.
