Age-related differences in the impact of cannabis use on the brain and cognition: a systematic review

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Abstract

The impact of cannabis on the adolescent compared to adult brain is of interest to researchers and society alike. From a theoretical perspective, adolescence represents a period of both risk and resilience to the harms of cannabis use and cannabis use disorders. The aim of this systematic review is to provide a critical examination of the moderating role of age on the relationship between cannabis use and cognition. To this end, we reviewed human and animal studies that formally tested whether age, adolescent or adult, changes the relationship between cannabis exposure and cognitive outcomes. While the results of this review do not offer a conclusive answer on the role of age, the novel review question, along with the inclusion of both human and animal work, has allowed for the formation of new hypotheses to be addressed in future work. First, general executive functioning seems to be more impaired in adolescent frequent cannabis users compared to adult frequent cannabis users. Second, age-effects may be most prominent among very heavy and dependent users. Third, craving and inhibitory control may not decrease as much post-intoxication in adolescents compared to adults. Lastly, adolescents’ vulnerability to reduced learning following cannabis use may not persist after sustained abstinence. If these hypotheses prove correct, it could lead to important developments in policy and prevention efforts.

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Most cited references 53

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The neural basis of drug craving: an incentive-sensitization theory of addiction.

T E Robinson, K C Berridge (1993)

This paper presents a biopsychological theory of drug addiction, the 'Incentive-Sensitization Theory'. The theory addresses three fundamental questions. The first is: why do addicts crave drugs? That is, what is the psychological and neurobiological basis of drug craving? The second is: why does drug craving persist even after long periods of abstinence? The third is whether 'wanting' drugs (drug craving) is attributable to 'liking' drugs (to the subjective pleasurable effects of drugs)? The theory posits the following. (1) Addictive drugs share the ability to enhance mesotelencephalic dopamine neurotransmission. (2) One psychological function of this neural system is to attribute 'incentive salience' to the perception and mental representation of events associated with activation of the system. Incentive salience is a psychological process that transforms the perception of stimuli, imbuing them with salience, making them attractive, 'wanted', incentive stimuli. (3) In some individuals the repeated use of addictive drugs produces incremental neuroadaptations in this neural system, rendering it increasingly and perhaps permanently, hypersensitive ('sensitized') to drugs and drug-associated stimuli. The sensitization of dopamine systems is gated by associative learning, which causes excessive incentive salience to be attributed to the act of drug taking and to stimuli associated with drug taking. It is specifically the sensitization of incentive salience, therefore, that transforms ordinary 'wanting' into excessive drug craving. (4) It is further proposed that sensitization of the neural systems responsible for incentive salience ('for wanting') can occur independently of changes in neural systems that mediate the subjective pleasurable effects of drugs (drug 'liking') and of neural systems that mediate withdrawal. Thus, sensitization of incentive salience can produce addictive behavior (compulsive drug seeking and drug taking) even if the expectation of drug pleasure or the aversive properties of withdrawal are diminished and even in the face of strong disincentives, including the loss of reputation, job, home and family. We review evidence for this view of addiction and discuss its implications for understanding the psychology and neurobiology of addiction.

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A dual systems model of adolescent risk-taking.

Laurence Steinberg (2010)

It has been hypothesized that reward-seeking and impulsivity develop along different timetables and have different neural underpinnings, and that the difference in their timetables helps account for heightened risk-taking during adolescence. In order to test these propositions, age differences in reward-seeking and impulsivity were examined in a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of 935 individuals between the ages of 10 and 30, using self-report and behavioral measures of each construct. Consistent with predictions, age differences in reward-seeking follow a curvilinear pattern, increasing between preadolescence and mid-adolescence, and declining thereafter. In contrast, age differences in impulsivity follow a linear pattern, with impulsivity declining steadily from age 10 on. Heightened vulnerability to risk-taking in middle adolescence may be due to the combination of relatively higher inclinations to seek rewards and still maturing capacities for self-control. (c) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Janna Cousijn: j.cousijn@gmail.com

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci

Title: European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg (Berlin/Heidelberg )

ISSN (Print): 0940-1334

ISSN (Electronic): 1433-8491

Publication date (Electronic): 24 January 2019

Publication date PMC-release: 24 January 2019

Publication date (Print): 2019

Volume: 269

Issue: 1

Pages: 37-58

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000000084992262, GRID grid.7177.6, Department of Psychology, Addiction Development and Psychopathology (ADAPT) Research Center, , University of Amsterdam, ; P.O. box 15916, 1001 NK Amsterdam, The Netherlands

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2353 285X, GRID grid.170693.a, Dynamics of Externalizing (DEXTER) Lab, Department of Psychology, , University of South Florida, ; Tampa, FL USA

[3 ]ISNI 0000000084992262, GRID grid.7177.6, The Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Center (ABC), , University of Amsterdam, ; Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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Claire Gorey http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7166-8601

Article

Publisher ID: 981

DOI: 10.1007/s00406-019-00981-7

PMC ID: 6394430

PubMed ID: 30680487

SO-VID: ed948013-864b-4ed5-85b7-f298e99074d9

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OpenAccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

History

Date received : 15 August 2018

Date accepted : 3 January 2019

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Neurosciences

Keywords: cannabis,development,cognition,brain,adolescence,systematic review

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Neurosciences

Keywords: cannabis, development, cognition, brain, adolescence, systematic review

Age-related differences in the impact of cannabis use on the brain and cognition: a systematic review

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Most cited references 53

The neural basis of drug craving: an incentive-sensitization theory of addiction.

Impulsivity as a determinant and consequence of drug use: a review of underlying processes.

A dual systems model of adolescent risk-taking.

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