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Abnormal medial prefrontal cortex activity in heavy cannabis users during conscious emotional evaluation

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Abstract

Rationale

Long-term heavy cannabis users (cannabis users) who are not acutely intoxicated have diminished subconscious neural responsiveness to affective stimuli.

Objective

This study sought to determine if abnormal processing extends to the conscious evaluation of emotional stimuli.

Methods

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine brain activity as cannabis users (N = 16) and non-cannabis-using controls (N = 17) evaluated and categorized standardized International Affective Picture System (IAPS) stimuli. Individual judgments were used to isolate activity during the evaluation of emotional (i.e., emotional evaluation) or neutral (i.e., neutral evaluation) stimuli. Within- and between-group analyses were performed.

Results

Both groups judged the same stimuli as emotional and had activations in visual, midbrain, and middle cingulate cortices during emotional evaluation, relative to neutral. Within-group analyses also revealed amygdalar and inferior frontal gyrus activations in controls, but not cannabis users, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) deactivations in cannabis users, but not controls, during emotional evaluation, relative to neutral. Between-group comparisons found that mPFC activity during positive and negative evaluation was significantly hypoactive in cannabis users, relative to controls.

Conclusions

Abnormal neural processing of affective content extends to the level of consciousness in cannabis users. The hypoactive mPFC responses observed resembles the attenuated mPFC responses found during increased non-affective cognitive load in prior research. These findings suggest that abnormal mPFC singling in cannabis users during emotional evaluation might be associated with increased non-affective cognitive load.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Institute of Drug Abuse grants DA007246 (MJW), DA031766 (JAL), DA020074 (LJP), and DA06634 (LJP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Medical Behavioral Science Building, Lexington, KY, USA

    Michael J. Wesley & Joshua A. Lile

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA

    Colleen A. Hanlon

  3. Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Linda J. Porrino

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  1. Michael J. Wesley
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  2. Joshua A. Lile
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  3. Colleen A. Hanlon
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Correspondence to Michael J. Wesley.

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Consent was obtained according to the Declaration of Helsinki, and the Wake Forest School of Medicine Institutional Review Board approved all screening and study procedures.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Wesley, M.J., Lile, J.A., Hanlon, C.A. et al. Abnormal medial prefrontal cortex activity in heavy cannabis users during conscious emotional evaluation. Psychopharmacology 233, 1035–1044 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-015-4180-y

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