The influence of marijuana on the neurobiology and biopsychology of the brain is one of the critically important and significant issues in the field of biological psychology. In particular, it expands the understanding and comprehension of the consequences of using the psychotropic substance on a person’s mental abilities and the mechanism of their brain. To date, more than a hundred studies have already been conducted on this topic, and each of the researchers determines their own approach to specifying the effects of cannabis on an individual, their worldview, attitude, and much more.
Moreover, the strategy of searching for relevant, reliable, and trustworthy articles on the topic was based on a systematic review of data via the Internet and other technologies. The keywords used for selecting papers are the influence of marijuana, brain neurobiology, brain biopsychology, and the effects of cannabis use on cognitive abilities. The student turned to the most popular databases such as Google Scholar, National Library of Medicine, American Heart Association, SpringerLink, bioRxiv, and ScienceDirect to determine the necessary information. Hence, a wide range of various, and most importantly, created by experts, research on medical and biological psychology topics have become priority points for choosing these databases.
The First Article by Brumback et al.
The article’s research methods are descriptive – secondary data analysis and literature reviews. Accordingly, the key variables include the independent as marijuana and the dependent as structural and functional brain model. Hence, the phenomenon of interest to the study’s authors is the peculiarities of the human brain associated with the use of the psychoactive substance. Furthermore, the hypothesis about the harmful and destructive outcomes of cannabis smoking has been confirmed due to a deep and comprehensive wide range of functional MRI investigations and other data obtained (Brumback et al., 2016). The answers to the questions were given in the form of summarizing the results of relevant case studies in the framework of assessing the changes and consequences of the effects of marijuana on the mechanism of brain function. Without any doubt, the scientists observed ethical standards and security measures, taking into account, for example, the copyright for the use, storage, and distribution of “weighted color maps” with the permission of the present author.
The Second Article by Testai et al.
The article’s research methods are correlational – record keeping, case study research, collecting reliable and accurate data, and secondary data analysis. The critical variables in the hypothesis should include marijuana, brain health, and cognitive functions; the phenomenon of interest, in this situation, is the harmful aspects of marijuana use from the point of view of safety and benefits to the brain (Testai et al., 2022). The hypothesis of significant risks of cannabis smoking on cognitive abilities was confirmed by analyzing statistics and confirmed examples and cases of adverse outcomes for humans. Therefore, the answers were given by appealing to the evidence of case studies and the research results by the scientists described in specialized literature and scientific journals. In addition, the article’s authors conducted a completely safe and ethical investigation while observing all the norms, rules, and standards for creating and publishing scientific material.
The Third Article by Zehra et al.
The article’s research methods are descriptive – record keeping and secondary data analysis. Consequently, the critical variables in the hypothesis include: the independent variable is, cannabis, and the dependent one is the brain. In this study, the “assumption” was confirmed by reviewing previous studies on the effects of marijuana on behavior and mental activity. It is no secret that the answers to the questions of interest were obtained due to the neurobiological model of addiction proposed by Koob and Volkow (Zehra et al., 2018). Moreover, the research is ethical and safe since the authors did not cause any moral or physical damage to anyone, and the limits of decency, morality, and the law were observed from the point of view of the paper’s publication.
The Fourth Article by Lichenstein et al.
The article’s research method is causal-comparative/quasiexperimental – a longitudinal study of risk and resilience. Therefore, the key variables in this study must include cannabis, cognition, and the anterior cingulate cortex. Furthermore, an interesting phenomenon is the ratio and relationship of marijuana consumption in adolescents’ anterior cingulate cortex. The hypothesis of significant adverse effects in young people was confirmed with the help of the Pitt Mother & Child Project and subsequent evaluation of the white matter microstructure of the cingulum and ATR (Lichenstein et al., 2019). The answers to the questions were given in the form of quantitative and qualitative data obtained through the study of white matter in “the subjects” aged 20 and 22. The writers obtained consent for voluntary research, data processing, and non-disclosure; during the investigation, none of the participants were harmed, which means that ethical standards and safety rules were taken into account.
The Fifth Article by Kroon et al.
The article’s research methods are descriptive – conducting a literature review and analyzing and evaluating the scientific materials. Accordingly, the key variables are cannabis and cognitive functions, and the phenomenon of interest, in this case, is the degree of influence and impact of marijuana on a person’s mental abilities and capabilities (Kroon et al., 2021). In addition, the hypothesis of a negative effect on essential cognitive functions through cannabis smoking within the framework of short-term and long-term effects was successfully confirmed by a brief summary of relevant thematic data and analysis of previously obtained results on the topic. The answers to the questions were given through in-depth and detailed research, discussion of the current biological psychology problem, and examination of evidence. The researchers have fully complied with aspects of ethics and security, and statements of conflict of interest are not expressed.
References
Brumback, T., Castro, N., Jacobus, J., & Tapert, S. (2016). Effects of marijuana use on brain structure and function: Neuroimaging findings from a neurodevelopmental perspective. International Review of Neurobiology, 129, 33-65.
Kroon, E., Kuhns, L., & Cousijn, J. (2021). The short-term and long-term effects of cannabis on cognition: recent advances in the field. Current Opinion in Psychology, 38, 49-55.
Lichenstein, S. D., Shaw, D. S., & Forbes, E. E. (2019). Cannabis, connectivity, and coming of age: Associations between cannabis use and anterior cingulate cortex connectivity during the transition to adulthood. BioRxiv, 1-38.
Testai, F. D., Gorelick, P. B., Aparicio, H. J., Filbey, F. M., Gonzalez, R., Gottesman, R. F.,… & Song, S. Y. (2022). Use of marijuana: Effect on brain health: A scientific statement from the American heart association. Stroke, 53(4), 176-187.
Zehra, A., Burns, J., Liu, C. K., Manza, P., Wiers, C. E., Volkow, N. D., & Wang, G. J. (2018). Cannabis addiction and the brain: A review. Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, 13(4), 438-452.