Study examined how young adults, using cannabis to varying degrees, performed on working memory and other cognitive tasks
As a teenager growing up in northern Colorado, Joshua Gowin, PhD, remembers sitting through DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) classes and watching those frying pan- focused public service announcements: "This is your brain on drugs."
It ignited his interest in what happened to the brain when a person uses cannabis, alcohol and other substances.
"I sort of got this impression that maybe you use a few times and then your brain will be like an egg, and it'll get smashed or something like that," said Gowin, assistant professor of radiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "And that certainly didn't seem exactly what I was observing, so I wanted to learn more precisely what does actually happen when people use substances, and how do they affect our brains and our behavior."
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Gowin is the lead author on a recent study published in JAMA Network Open that explored the effects of both recent and lifetime cannabis use on brain function during cognitive tasks.
The study analyzed data from the Human Connectome Project that collected magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data across seven tasks that tested a range of brain functions. Gowin's study became the largest of its kind, examining the effects of cannabis use on over 1,000 young adults aged 22 to 36 using brain imaging technology.
"Having the seven tasks allowed me to get about as close as you could for a brain-imaging person to look at how different parts of brain function are affected by cannabis," Gowin said.
What were the study's findings and where is his research headed next? Listen to this episode of Health Science Radio to find out.
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