How do cannabis users mentally travel in time? Evidence from an fMRI study of episodic future thinking.
Rationale: Episodic future thinking (EFT) is a cognitive function that allows individuals to imagine novel experiences that may happen in the future. Prior studies show that EFT is impaired in different groups of substance users. However, there is no evidence regarding the neurobiological mechanisms...
| Published in: | Psychopharmacology Vol. 239; no. 5; pp. 1441 - 1458 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
May2022
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=156891429&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 156891429 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 00333158 EJD jtl: Psychopharmacology issn: 00333158 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May2022 vid: 239 iid: 5 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature place: New York, New York artinfo: ui: 156891429 153259444 10.1007/s00213-021-06002-7 156891429 ppf: 1441 ppct: 17 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: How do cannabis users mentally travel in time? Evidence from an fMRI study of episodic future thinking. aug: au: Rafei, Parnian Rezapour, Tara Batouli, Seyed Amir Hossein Verdejo-García, Antonio Lorenzetti, Valentina Hatami, Javad affil: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran sug: ab: Rationale: Episodic future thinking (EFT) is a cognitive function that allows individuals to imagine novel experiences that may happen in the future. Prior studies show that EFT is impaired in different groups of substance users. However, there is no evidence regarding the neurobiological mechanisms of EFT in cannabis users. Objectives: We aimed to compare brain activations of regular cannabis users and non-using controls during an EFT fMRI task. Exploratory analyses were also conducted to investigate the association between EFT and cannabis use variables (e.g., duration of use, age onset, frequency of use). Methods: Twenty current cannabis users and 22 drug-naïve controls underwent an fMRI scanning session while completing a task involving envisioning future-related events and retrieval of past memories as a control condition. The EFT fMRI task was adapted from the autobiographical interview and composed of 20 auditory cue sentences (10 cues for past and 10 cues for future events). Participants were asked to recall a past or generate a future event, in response to the cues, and then rate their vividness after each response. Results: We found that cannabis users compared to non-user controls had lower activation within the cerebellum, medial and superior temporal gyrus, lateral occipital cortex, and occipital fusiform gyrus while envisioning future events. Cannabis users rated the vividness of past events significantly lower than non-users (P < 0.005). There were marginal group differences for rating the vividness of future events (P = 0.052). Significant correlations were also found between the medial and superior temporal gyrus activities and behavioral measures of EFT and episodic memory. Conclusions: Cannabis users, compared to drug-naïve controls, have lower brain activation in EFT relevant regions. Thus, any attempts to improve aberrant EFT performance in cannabis users may benefit from EFT training. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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