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. 2020 Nov 27:11:599256.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.599256. eCollection 2020.

Does Chronic Cannabis Use Impact Risky Decision-Making: An Examination of fMRI Activation and Effective Connectivity?

David R Raymond  1 , Adrian Paneto  2 , Karmen K Yoder  3 , Brian F O'Donnell  1   4 , Joshua W Brown  1   4 , William P Hetrick  1   4 , Sharlene D Newman  1   4   5
Affiliations

Does Chronic Cannabis Use Impact Risky Decision-Making: An Examination of fMRI Activation and Effective Connectivity?

David R Raymond et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

With the increase in use of cannabis and its shifting legal status in the United States, cannabis use has become an important research focus. While studies of other drug populations have shown marked increases in risky decision-making, the literature on cannabis users is not as clear. The current study examined the performance of 17 cannabis users and 14 non-users on the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) using behavioral, fMRI and effective connectivity methods. Significant attenuation was found in a functional pathway projecting from the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in cannabis users compared to non-using controls as well as decreases in risk-taking behaviors. These findings suggest that cannabis users may process and evaluate risks and rewards differently than non-users.

Keywords: cannabis; decision-making; effective connectivity; fMRI; reward; risk.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A Depiction of the typical trial in the BART task.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Risk activity collapsed across groups. Significant activity was observed in the ACC, NAc and bilateral insula.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effective connectivity network analysis results from the cannabis use group (left, green) and the control group (right, blue).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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