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Researchers at Washington State University have found cognitive changes in the children of rats exposed to large amounts of cannabis. Their work is one of the few studies to examine the effects of cannabis during pregnancy. The drug is the illicit substance most commonly used by pregnant women.
Ryan McLaughlin, Adjunct Professor of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience, exposed gravid rats to varying concentrations of cannabis vapor and explained how the offspring of those exposed to large quantities had difficulty adapting their strategy to obtain sugar rewards.
"Prenatal exposure to cannabis can cause significant changes in brain development that can negatively impact cognitive functioning in adulthood," McLaughlin and colleagues wrote in a summary for a presentation at of the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, 2018 Neuroscience, San Diego.
Researchers used a new exposure model of vaporizing cannabis extracts to recreate the way humans use drugs most often. Spleens or pregnant mothers received varying amounts of steam. The witnesses received none, while others had steam without cannabis or vapors containing low or high amounts of cannabis. The smoke, administered in controlled atmosphere cages for more than two hours a day, from before pregnancy to gestation, increased THC levels in the blood to that of a person who had a few flashes.
About 60 children were subjected to a task similar to that of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, a method used for 80 years to test a human's flexibility when conditions for positive reinforcement changed. The rats were first trained to press one of the two levers, learning that they had sugar by pressing the lever near a light. The next day, they received a sugar reward by pressing the left or right lever, regardless of the light.
Rats exposed to cannabis in utero learned the first rule quite easily. But rats exposed to a high concentration of cannabis "showed marked deficits in their ability to change strategy when the new rule was put in place," the researchers wrote.
The rats of mothers exposed to high levels of cannabis often seemed to learn the new reward strategy, hitting the appropriate lever several times in a row. But they would not stay long enough in the strategy to reach the right leverage ten times, as the offspring of mothers exposed to less or no cannabis.
"The general message is that we are seeing deficits, particularly in the area of cognitive flexibility, in rats exposed prenatally to high doses of cannabis vapor," said McLaughlin. "The weakening is not a general learning deficit because they can very well understand the initial rule. The deficit only manifests itself when the learned strategy no longer results in rewards. They do not seem to be able to adapt properly and tend to make more regressive errors result, suggesting a deterioration in the maintenance of the new optimal strategy. "
McLaughlin notes that high-exposure rats are not necessarily less intelligent, but less motivated. They might be less interested in the task, not wanting as much sugar or wanting to explore other tracks.
"They do not have these opinions on how they should behave because they do not want to be perceived as" the stupid rat ", he said. "Clearly, that's not what's driving their behavior, they're just going to be trying to get as much sugar pellets as they can, but at some point the sugar granules will continue." they motivate your behavior after eating 100? as much on them? "
The project, which complies with federal law, was supported by the WSU's alcohol and drug abuse research program. Funded by state taxes on cannabis and alcohol licensing fees, the program is aimed at pilot projects focused on addiction.
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Material provided by University of Washington State. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
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