Cannabis affects people differently: inter-subject variation in the psychotogenic effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study with healthy volunteers
Psychological Medicine October 1, 2012 Zerrin Atakan, Sagnik Bhattacharyya, Paul Allen et al. 54 citations
A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 21 healthy men with minimal cannabis experience found that oral administration of 10 mg THC induced transient psychotic symptoms in 11 participants but not in the other 10. Those who became transiently psychotic made more inhibition errors and showed opposite patterns of brain activation in the left parahippocampal gyrus, left and right middle temporal gyri, and right cerebellum compared to the non-psychotic group. The findings suggest that variability in sensitivity to THC's psychotogenic effects is linked to differential activation in ventral and medial temporal cortex and cerebellum.