March 12, 2015 Northwestern University Summary: Teens who were heavy marijuana users -- smoking it daily for about three years -- had an abnormally shaped hippocampus and performed poorly on long-term memory tasks, reports a new study. The hippocampus is important to long-term memory, which is the ability to remember life events. The brain abnormalities and memory problems were observed during the individuals' early twenties, two years after they stopped smoking marijuana. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150312082906.htm
Weirdly enough, I feel like my adult memories are better, more vivid, and I remember the chronological order of events more clearly. Although I'm a heavy user since I was 16-17 so I guess I have no sober memories to compare it to. Oh well. Time for a vape. Sent from this guy
"Because the study results examined one point in time, a longitudinal study is needed to definitively show if marijuana is responsible for the observed differences in the brain and memory impairment, Smith said." http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150312082906.htm
The other problem with this study, is that structural changes to the hippocampus can also be due to other disorders that the study failed to account for in the article. I would take this study with a grain of salt.
If anything, smoking daily as long as I did resurfaced memories of the past that I had completely blocked, or completely failed to recall otherwise for no particular reason. This was usually via dreams, and asking family and some friends about it confirmed what was true and what wasn't. Anyway, this kind of reminds me of the claims that heavy smoking causes schizophrenia. It also reminds me of the study that, so they said, proved marijuana kills brain cells. In terms of factors not being taken into account anyway. My point is: This seems like propaganda.
" Because the study results examined one point in time, a longitudinal study is needed to definitively show if marijuana is responsible for the observed differences in the brain and memory impairment, Smith said. "It is possible that the abnormal brain structures reveal a pre-existing vulnerability to marijuana abuse," Smith said. "But evidence that the longer the participants were abusing marijuana, the greater the differences in hippocampus shape suggests marijuana may be the cause." " They haven't quite proven anything yet, in other words. They would need a study that tracks the changes in bodies and minds of cannabis smokers over a long period of time to prove that it is actually cannabis that is responsible for these negative changes. And it will probably be quite some time til this research is done, because it takes just that, time.
So the general consensus is, "So what if these findings may be true and seem to be in line with past findings about cannabis' effects on the brain? Negative findings on cannabis must be meaningless." I'm high as hell, but I don't kid myself into thinking weed isn't doing any damage.
Small topic in a big discussion. Wouldn't be surprised, but I'm taking it with a grain of salt. Thankfully weed is unique and different for all. Anyway, my short term memory is already shot, if you chill on the smoking, you'll be okay. It does however get extremely annoying as without weed I am already spaced out, sometimes the weed will focus me a bit or my short term thought process is shot. it surely does not help long term memory, but if you notice big problems try to resolve them. I personally take b-12, some other supplements, try to work out and diet and be social. Sometimes depression causes a bad memory, or has a relation, imo. Many factors but eh, I can't speak I've blew to much loud but just give yourself a little t-break here and there. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I hope I'm not to far gone haha I started at 16 but no substances before 16 what so ever. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
did they read the same study? http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hipo.22427/abstract;jsessionid=D27A253E4572BA0460CB1BFD37FDF17C.f01t02 in other words... our study was pretty much meaningless, since we can't tell shit based on all the metrics we took. sorry for wasting your time and money. let's test more teenagers for brain damage when we come up with a new a idea of how to twist things up... maybe this time we'll find some teens with known mental retardation and substance abuse. why stop at schizophrenia?
no the consensus is that the article that talks about the study is full of shit. you need to read the actual study look at what they used for control group and test subject to understand the meaning of the whole thing. consider this statement from the study: so basically based on this someone will conclude that previous mj users have worse memory than non-users (i.e. control group). do you see the problem here? 1 person ... let me rephrase that... one non-schizophrenic person, did not complete the assignment. and the conclusion drawn? past mj users have worse memory. that's fucking ridiculous and absurd. perhaps that particular kid had some issue... so now all teens fall into that category. how do you go from one person to all teenagers?