Pediatric researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia used MR scanning with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to determine that adolescents and young adult heavy users of marijuana are more likely than nonusers to have disrupted brain development.
With DTI to measure water movement through brain tissues, the researchers found abnormalities in brain areas that interconnect regions involved in memory, attention, decision-making, language, and executive functioning skills.
The researchers caution that the study is preliminary and does not demonstrate that marijuana use causes the brain abnormalities. However, lead author Manzar Ashtari, Ph.D., director of the hospital's Diffusion Image Analysis and Brain Morphometry Laboratory, noted that studies of normal brain development reveal critical areas of the brain that develop during late adolescence. The report also noted that heavy cannabis use is associated with damage in those brain regions.
The study was published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research (January 2009, Vol. 43:3, pp. 189-204).
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