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Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, study says
MSN ^ | 11/11/14 | Melissa Healy

Posted on 11/11/2014 1:45:49 AM PST by Libloather

Experimental mice have been telling us this for years, but pot-smoking humans didn't want to believe it could happen to them: Compared with a person who never smoked marijuana, someone who uses marijuana regularly has, on average, less gray matter in his orbital frontal cortex, a region that is a key node in the brain's reward, motivation, decision-making and addictive behaviors network.

More ambiguously, in regular pot smokers, that region is better connected than it is in non-users:The flow of signal traffic is speedier to other parts of that motivation and decision-making network, including across the superhighway of "white matter" that connects the brain's hemispheres.

The researchers who conducted the study speculate that the orbital frontal cortex's greater level of "connectedness" — which is especially pronounced in people who started smoking pot early in life — may be the brain's way of compensating for the region's underperforming gray matter. Whether these "complex neuroadaptive processes" reverse themselves when marijuana use stops is an important unanswered question, they added.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: brain; braindamage; cannabis; dope; marijuana; pot; potheads; smokers; study; warfordrugs; wod
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This could explain why RATS win elections.
1 posted on 11/11/2014 1:45:49 AM PST by Libloather
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To: Libloather

I notice they seem to be herd animals as well.


2 posted on 11/11/2014 1:48:27 AM PST by dila813
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>> Experimental mice have been telling us this for year

“Squeak... squeak, squeak, squeak. Ugh... squeak, squeak... SQUEAK!!!”


3 posted on 11/11/2014 1:49:25 AM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Libloather
Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, study says
How can they tell? /s
4 posted on 11/11/2014 1:53:13 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper
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To: Libloather

This is not a surprise.


5 posted on 11/11/2014 1:57:37 AM PST by Ethan Clive Osgoode (<<== Click here to learn about Evolution!)
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To: Ethan Clive Osgoode

What, yesterday they discover a virus that causes stupidity now they blame pot. What else will they discover to put the masses into a proverbial dumb soak?


6 posted on 11/11/2014 2:03:08 AM PST by poobear (Socialism in the minds of the elites, is a con-game for the serfs, nothing more.)
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To: Libloather

I'd already noticed that side effect.

7 posted on 11/11/2014 2:08:36 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: Libloather
"Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, study says"

That loud echo when he thinks he's right could explain a lot about obama.
8 posted on 11/11/2014 2:11:15 AM PST by clearcarbon
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To: Libloather

Please. This is so forty years ago. Sitting in your Mother’s basement playing video games will do it, too. In fact, pick a parameter and look for something. Sloppy statistics and poor methodology and “presto”! Science, abused again. But then it is MSNBC. Consider the source.


9 posted on 11/11/2014 2:15:15 AM PST by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: Pollster1

Golf, golf > Choom, choom > Sodomy, sodomy > Lather, rinse, repeat

[Pothead of the United States (POTUS) daily schedule through 01/20/2017]


10 posted on 11/11/2014 2:19:02 AM PST by twister881
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To: Libloather

A new study says we can get you to believe anything so long as we say “a new study says” right before whatever B.S. we are saying.


11 posted on 11/11/2014 2:25:46 AM PST by southern rock
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To: wastoute
This is so forty years ago

The study was released yesterday: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/11/05/1415297111.abstract

I am interested in your critique of the study methods and conclusions.

12 posted on 11/11/2014 2:37:00 AM PST by palmer (Minnesota Is Monitoring 48 for Ebola, Already 12 Go Missing)
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To: Libloather
Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, study says

Sounds like a perfect justification for threatening people with prison for merely possessing pot.

On an equally earth-shaking note, I read another study that said alcohol drinkers' and tobacco smokers' brains actually become larger with regular use. They have fewer living brains cells, but, hey, at least they're larger...

13 posted on 11/11/2014 2:37:44 AM PST by sargon
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To: palmer

Some recent studies also have shown that reg. Pot smokers have a higher rate of schizophrenia. I definitely believe that is a possibility based on some childhood acquaintances that were heavy into pot in there teens and 20’s and now are on Psychotropic Medications and have been in and out of institutions.


14 posted on 11/11/2014 3:03:41 AM PST by DAC21
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To: Libloather

The one’s that I am aware of act stupid and support democrats. Duplicity given.


15 posted on 11/11/2014 3:18:28 AM PST by Recompennation (Constitutional protection for all not ju st selectively for Democrats.)
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To: Libloather

“Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, study says”

Far out, man. But do any other body parts get shrunk?


16 posted on 11/11/2014 3:22:27 AM PST by Bertha Fanation
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To: DAC21

“Some recent studies also have shown that reg. Pot smokers have a higher rate of schizophrenia.”

I would question whether this is cause or effect. People with tendencies to develop schizophrenia, depression, anorexia and a host of other behavior problems tend to self medicate.


17 posted on 11/11/2014 3:26:32 AM PST by bitterohiogunclinger (Proudly casting a heavy carbon footprint as I clean my guns ---)
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To: Libloather

18 posted on 11/11/2014 3:27:02 AM PST by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Libloather

Lincoln said that Prohibition (of alcohol) was “a species of intemperance itself” and “went against the principles upon which our nation was founded.”
He did not drink, or at least not like most men of his time, preferring the “beverage of Adam” (water), possibly because his father, whom he loathed, was a heavy drinker. Abe was a bartender for a short while, abstaining himself.
Nevertheless, he refused to talk of alcohol as a bad thing itself. It was a “good thing”, while “its abuse is a bad thing.’


19 posted on 11/11/2014 3:27:24 AM PST by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
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To: palmer; wastoute; ConservingFreedom

I read it. According to the study, casual use increases brain size. So moderation in all things.


20 posted on 11/11/2014 3:28:49 AM PST by Wolfie
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