WEBVTT - How Does Marijuana Affect Your Memory?

0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:02.920
<v Speaker 1>Hey, this is Julie Douglas from the podcast The Stuff

0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:05.760
<v Speaker 1>of Life here to tell you that super producer Noel

0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:08.520
<v Speaker 1>Brown and I are cooking up season two for an

0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:12.360
<v Speaker 1>August release. So if you haven't already checked out season

0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:14.920
<v Speaker 1>one of the Stuff of Life, there's a big bowl

0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.360
<v Speaker 1>of ten episodes ready for you to dig into on

0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:21.800
<v Speaker 1>iTunes or wherever you get your delicious podcast take out from.

0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:26.240
<v Speaker 1>In the meantime, apply sunscreened liberally and we'll see you

0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:38.880
<v Speaker 1>in August. Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey,

0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.400
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, this is Christian Seger. So here in the

0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:46.040
<v Speaker 1>United States, marijuana is most commonly used as an illicit drug.

0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.159
<v Speaker 1>Our society thinks of stereotypical users as being you know,

0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:53.040
<v Speaker 1>forgetful and absent minded. And this is because the main

0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:57.920
<v Speaker 1>psychoactive ingredient in marijuana impairs our memory. It's called tetro

0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.639
<v Speaker 1>hydro cannabinal or for the sake of you know, brevity,

0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:06.680
<v Speaker 1>th HC. Th HC alters how information is processed in

0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:09.440
<v Speaker 1>the hippocampus. This is the area of the brain that

0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:14.160
<v Speaker 1>is responsible for memory formation. However, you consume marijuana, THHC

0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:18.240
<v Speaker 1>enters your brain by latching onto a protein called cannabinoid

0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:22.080
<v Speaker 1>receptor type one, or c B one for short. There

0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.360
<v Speaker 1>are c B one sprinkled throughout the brain. There in

0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:30.240
<v Speaker 1>your cortex, basil, ganglia, the hypothalamus, and the hippocampus where

0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.600
<v Speaker 1>we form our memories. See where I'm going here for

0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:37.200
<v Speaker 1>a short term memory. Forty years worth of different studies

0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.679
<v Speaker 1>show that th HC disrupts our short term memory, making

0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.440
<v Speaker 1>it hard to form new memories when you're high. This

0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.440
<v Speaker 1>also makes it really difficult to remember what happened when

0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:49.560
<v Speaker 1>you were high, even after the th HC wears off,

0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.120
<v Speaker 1>and larger doses of th HC have even more of

0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.880
<v Speaker 1>an effect on memory. Frequent users are more tolerant to

0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:01.080
<v Speaker 1>the th HC, however, and its effects including memory loss.

0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.920
<v Speaker 1>But what about recalling your existing memories. Th HC does

0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.240
<v Speaker 1>not actually affect that, nor does it lead to memory

0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:12.640
<v Speaker 1>loss or dementia. Therefore, users can remember things they already know,

0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:16.240
<v Speaker 1>like their name or where they live. And Our bodies

0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:20.640
<v Speaker 1>have a biological system made of natural marijuana like compounds.

0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:25.200
<v Speaker 1>This is called the endocannabinoid system. It regulates our memory formation,

0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.880
<v Speaker 1>functioning as a filter so we're not overloaded with information.

0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:32.400
<v Speaker 1>The system is involved in the extinction of our negative

0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.200
<v Speaker 1>memories as well. That's what they call it extinction. It

0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:40.040
<v Speaker 1>can influence pain, memory, mood, and even appetite, and researchers

0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:43.359
<v Speaker 1>hope that by using THHC they can help people forget

0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:48.160
<v Speaker 1>bad memories such as post traumatic stress disorder. So studies

0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:51.040
<v Speaker 1>do show that as people age, they lose neurons in

0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:56.040
<v Speaker 1>the hippocampus, and chronic THC use can hasten this loss. Also,

0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.680
<v Speaker 1>a study out of Northwestern University published in March of

0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:04.400
<v Speaker 1>fifteen showed that teens who smoked daily for three or

0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:09.480
<v Speaker 1>more years have been found to have an abnormally shaped hippocampus.

0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:13.320
<v Speaker 1>They also performed poorly on long term memory tests, eighteen

0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:17.959
<v Speaker 1>percent worse than those who didn't use marijuana. The deformation

0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.640
<v Speaker 1>of the hippocampus is thought to be connected to this

0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.120
<v Speaker 1>poor memory. Subjects in this study took a narrative memory

0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.400
<v Speaker 1>test where they listened to a series of stories for

0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.880
<v Speaker 1>one minute twenty to thirty minutes later, they were asked

0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.480
<v Speaker 1>to recall as much from the stories as they could,

0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.400
<v Speaker 1>and this assessed their ability to encode, store, and recall

0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:41.400
<v Speaker 1>details from their stories. The longer the individuals used marijuana chronically,

0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:46.720
<v Speaker 1>the more abnormal their hippocampus was shaped. This probably damages

0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:51.000
<v Speaker 1>its neurons and its axons, as well as supportive environments.

0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:55.280
<v Speaker 1>The abnormalities didn't seem to go away either, even when

0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:59.000
<v Speaker 1>observed in individuals in their early twenties who had stopped

0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:02.840
<v Speaker 1>using marijuana for over two years now. It's important to

0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:07.200
<v Speaker 1>note that drawing definitive conclusions about marijuana's long term effects

0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:13.120
<v Speaker 1>is difficult because steady participants often use multiple substances. Rats

0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:16.320
<v Speaker 1>exposed to th HC before they're born, after birth, and

0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:21.360
<v Speaker 1>during rat adolescence show problems with learning and memory tasks

0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:25.200
<v Speaker 1>later in their lives. A rats hippocampus changes as well

0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.559
<v Speaker 1>when it's exposed to th HC, and imaging in human

0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:35.400
<v Speaker 1>adolescence shows that regular users display impaired neural connectivity. This

0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:40.960
<v Speaker 1>affects memory, learning, and impulse control. The endocannabinoid system is

0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.119
<v Speaker 1>important to the formation of our synapses during early brain

0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:48.920
<v Speaker 1>development and refining them during adolescence, so it's possible that

0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.880
<v Speaker 1>marijuana use is affecting this development. If you want to

0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:57.600
<v Speaker 1>learn more about marijuana, memory, and medical health, I recommend

0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.719
<v Speaker 1>that you go check out my other podcasts stuff to

0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:03.240
<v Speaker 1>blow your mind. We just recently did two deep dive

0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:11.240
<v Speaker 1>episodes into marijuana. Check it out. Check out the brain

0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:13.400
<v Speaker 1>Stuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and

0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:30.000
<v Speaker 1>thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com