Huang Peihan J, Son Jake J, Arif Yasra, John Jason A, Horne Lucy K, Schantell Mikki, Springer Seth D, Rempe Maggie P, Okelberry Hannah J, Killanin Abraham D, Glesinger Ryan, Coutant Anna T, Ward Thomas W, Willett Madelyn P, Johnson Hallie J, Heinrichs-Graham Elizabeth, Wilson Tony W
Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, USA; Department of Pharmacology & Neuroscience, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA.
Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, USA; College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), Omaha, NE, USA.
Neurobiol Dis. 2025 Feb;205:106792. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2025.106792. Epub 2025 Jan 5.
The legalization of recreational cannabis use has expanded the availability of this psychoactive substance in the United States. Research has shown that chronic cannabis use is associated with altered working memory function, however, the brain areas and neural dynamics underlying these affects remain poorly understood. In this study, we leveraged magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate neurophysiological activity in 45 participants (22 heavy cannabis users) during a numerical WM task, whereby participants were asked to either maintain or manipulate (i.e., rearrange in ascending order) a group of visually presented numbers. Significant oscillatory responses were imaged using a beamformer and subjected to whole-brain ANOVAs. Notably, we found that cannabis users exhibited significantly weaker alpha oscillations in superior parietal, occipital, and other regions during the encoding phase relative to nonusers. Interestingly, during the maintenance phase, there was a group-by-condition interaction in the right inferior frontal gyrus, left prefrontal, parietal, and other regions, such that cannabis users exhibited weaker alpha and beta oscillations relative to nonusers during maintain trials. Additionally, chronic cannabis users exhibited stronger alpha and beta maintenance responses in these same brain regions and prolonged reaction times during manipulate relative to maintain trials, while no such differences were found in nonusers. Neurobehavioral relationships were also detected in the prefrontal cortices of nonusers, but not cannabis users. In sum, chronic cannabis users exhibit weaker neural oscillations during working memory encoding but may compensate for these deficiencies through stronger oscillatory responses during memory maintenance, especially during strenuous tasks such as manipulating the to-be remembered items.
娱乐性大麻使用的合法化扩大了这种精神活性物质在美国的可得性。研究表明，长期使用大麻与工作记忆功能改变有关，然而，这些影响背后的脑区和神经动力学仍知之甚少。在本研究中，我们利用脑磁图（MEG）来研究45名参与者（22名重度大麻使用者）在数字工作记忆任务期间的神经生理活动，在此任务中，参与者被要求保持或操作（即按升序重新排列）一组视觉呈现的数字。使用波束形成器对显著的振荡反应进行成像，并进行全脑方差分析。值得注意的是，我们发现，在编码阶段，大麻使用者相对于非使用者，在顶上叶、枕叶和其他区域表现出明显较弱的阿尔法振荡。有趣的是，在维持阶段，右下额叶回、左前额叶、顶叶和其他区域存在组间条件交互作用，因此在维持试验期间，大麻使用者相对于非使用者表现出较弱的阿尔法和贝塔振荡。此外，长期大麻使用者在这些相同的脑区表现出更强的阿尔法和贝塔维持反应，并且在操作试验相对于维持试验期间反应时间延长，而非使用者中未发现此类差异。在非使用者的前额叶皮质中也检测到了神经行为关系，但在大麻使用者中未检测到。总之，长期大麻使用者在工作记忆编码期间表现出较弱的神经振荡，但可能通过在记忆维持期间更强的振荡反应来弥补这些缺陷，尤其是在诸如操作待记忆项目等繁重任务期间。
