Chronic cannabis use alters the spontaneous and oscillatory gamma dynamics serving cognitive control.

Regular cannabis use is linked to suppressed spontaneous gamma brain activity in regions that support cognitive control, specifically the left frontal eye fields (FEF) and left temporoparietal junction (TPJ). In a study of 34 cannabis users and 33 nonusers performing a flanker task during magnetoencephalography, cannabis users showed no difference in gamma oscillations between incongruent and congruent trials, whereas nonusers exhibited stronger gamma during incongruent trials. Spontaneous gamma activity was sharply reduced in cannabis users in both brain regions, and greater cannabis use was associated with weaker spontaneous gamma activity in the left TPJ. These findings suggest that regular cannabis use dampens baseline gamma activity in cognitive control networks, and the degree of suppression may scale with the amount of use.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Regular cannabis use is associated with cortex-wide changes in spontaneous and oscillatory activity, although the functional significance of such changes remains unclear. We hypothesized that regular cannabis use would suppress spontaneous gamma activity in regions serving cognitive control and scale with task performance. Participants (34 cannabis users, 33 nonusers) underwent an interview regarding their substance use history and completed the Eriksen flanker task during magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG data were imaged in the time-frequency domain and virtual sensors were extracted from the peak voxels of the grand-averaged oscillatory interference maps to quantify spontaneous gamma activity during the pre-stimulus baseline period. We then assessed group-level differences in spontaneous and oscillatory gamma activity, and their relationship with task performance and cannabis use metrics. Both groups exhibited a significant behavioral flanker interference effect, with slower responses during incongruent relative to congruent trials. Mixed-model ANOVAs indicated significant gamma-frequency neural interference effects in the left frontal eye fields (FEF) and left temporoparietal junction (TPJ). Further, a group-by-condition interaction was detected in the left FEF, with nonusers exhibiting stronger gamma oscillations during incongruent relative to congruent trials and cannabis users showing no difference. In addition, spontaneous gamma activity was sharply suppressed in cannabis users relative to nonusers in the left FEF and TPJ. Finally, spontaneous gamma activity in the left FEF and TPJ was associated with task performance across all participants, and greater cannabis use was associated with weaker spontaneous gamma activity in the left TPJ of the cannabis users. Regular cannabis use was associated with weaker spontaneous gamma in the TPJ and FEF. Further, the degree of use may be proportionally related to the degree of suppression in spontaneous activity in the left TPJ.