New York, March 12: Teegers who are heavy marijua users have poor long-term memory, says a new study. The longer the individuals were chronically using marijua, the more abnormal the shape of their hippocampus, the study reported. The abnormal shape likely reflects damage to the hippocampus and could include the structure’s neurons, axons or their supportive environments. The hippocampus is important to long-term memory (also known as episodic memory), which is the ability to remember autobiographical or life events.
“The memory processes that appear to be affected by canbis are ones that we use every day to solve common problems and to sustain our relationships with friends and family,” said senior study author John Csernsky from Northwestern University, Chicago. The brain abnormalities and memory problems were observed during the individuals’ early 20s, two years after they stopped smoking marijua. Young adults who abused canbis as teens performed about 18 percent worse on long-term memory tests than young adults who never abused canbis. “Both our recent studies link the chronic use of marijua during adolescence to these differences in the shape of brain regions that are critical to memory and that appear to last for at least a few years after people stop using it,” said lead study author Matthew Smith. (IANS)