THC Increases Brain Activity In Response To Positive Stimuli

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Quote:THC Increases Brain Activity In Response To Positive Stimuli

London, United Kingdom: The administration of THC, the primary psychoactive component in cannabis, modulates emotional processing in healthy volunteers, according to placebo-controlled crossover trial data published online by the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology.

Investigators from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on 11 healthy male subjects. Following the administration of THC or placebo, researchers assessed subjects' brain activity during their exposure to stimuli with a negative ('fearful faces') content or a positive content ('happy faces'). They hypothesized that THC administration would reduce subjects' negative bias in emotional processing and shift it towards a positive bias. A bias toward negative stimuli has been linked to diagnoses of certain mental illnesses such as depression.

As anticipated, authors reported reduced brain activity after THC administration when subjects' processed stimuli with a negative emotional content. Conversely, researchers reported increased brain activity following THC administration when subjects' processed stimuli with a positive emotional content.

They concluded: "These results indicate that THC administration reduces the negative bias in emotional processing. This adds human evidence to support the hypothesis that the endocannabinoid system is involved in modulation of emotional processing. Our findings also suggest a possible role for the endocannabinoid system in abnormal emotional processing, and may thus be relevant for psychiatric disorders such as major depression."

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, "The endocannabinoid system and emotional processing: A pharmacological fMRI study with Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol," will appear in European Neurophyscopharmacology.

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Original article: http://norml.org/news/2013/09/19/thc-increases-brain-activity-in-response-to-positive-stimuli

Abstract: http://www.europeanneuropsychopharmacology.com/article/S0924-977X%2813%2900195-8/abstract (full text available for purchase)

This article hilights the potential for d9THC to be utilised for the treatment of depression and can even, as a May 30 study in Tel Aviv noted, halt brain damage:

Quote:...Prof. Yosef Sarne of Tel Aviv University's Adelson Center for the Biology of Addictive Diseases at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine says that the drug has neuroprotective qualities as well. He has found that extremely low doses of THC -- the psychoactive component of marijuana -- protects the brain from long-term cognitive damage in the wake of injury from hypoxia (lack of oxygen), seizures, or toxic drugs. Brain damage can have consequences ranging from mild cognitive deficits to severe neurological damage.