More frequent marijuana use may damage brain’s ability to remember an important memory skill
Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. “Working memory is the ability to retain information for a short period of time and use it,” said lead study author Joshua Gowin, an assistant professor of radiology at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz School of Medicine in Aurora, Colorado. “Losing working memory means that retaining that information might require more effort and be more challenging.” Only a connection, not cause and effect The new observational study, published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Network Open, cannot prove that cannabis harms the brain, said Carol Boyd, professor emerita and founding director of the Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Researchers found 63% of heavy lifetime cannabis users exhibited reduced brain activity during a working memory task, while 68% of people who tested positive for recent use of cannabis also demonstrated a similar impact. “However, when we compared recent to chronic users of cannabis side by side, we found that chronic use seemed to be more important than recent use when it came to problems with working memory,” Gowin said.
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