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Long-term effects of cannabis on eye movement control in reading

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Abstract

Introduction

Cannabis is known to produce substantial acute effects on human cognition and visuomotor skills. Many recent studies additionally revealed rather long-lasting effects on basic oculomotor control, especially after chronic use. However, it is still unknown to what extent these deficits play a role in everyday tasks that strongly rely on an efficient saccade system, such as reading.

Materials and methods

In the present study, eye movements during sentence reading of 20 healthy long-term cannabis users (without acute tetrahydrocannabinol-intoxication) and 20 control participants were compared. Analyses focused on both spatial and temporal parameters of oculomotor control during reading.

Results

Long-term cannabis users exhibited increased fixation durations, more revisiting of previously inspected text, and a substantial prolongation of word viewing times, which were highly inflated for longer and less frequent words.

Discussion

The results indicate that relatively subtle performance deficits on the level of basic oculomotor control scale up as task complexity and cognitive demands increase.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University, Jaegerstasse 17-19, 52056, Aachen, Germany

    Lynn Huestegge

  2. Division of Clinical Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Hermann-Rein-Str. 3, 37075, Göttingen, Germany

    Hanns-Jürgen Kunert

  3. Department of Psychology and Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University, 1107 W. Call Street, Tallahassee, FL, 32306-4301, USA

    Ralph Radach

Authors
  1. Lynn Huestegge
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  2. Hanns-Jürgen Kunert
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  3. Ralph Radach
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Correspondence to Lynn Huestegge.

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Huestegge, L., Kunert, HJ. & Radach, R. Long-term effects of cannabis on eye movement control in reading. Psychopharmacology 209, 77–84 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-009-1769-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-009-1769-z

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