Journal Article

Regular cannabis use modulates gamma functional connectivity with V1 during visual processing

Webert, Lauren K., De Luca, Kyla R., Rempe, Maggie P., Okelberry, Hannah J., Glesinger, Ryan, Horne, Lucy K., Garrison, Grant M., Carusi, Olivia R., Voller, Molly E., Springer, Seth D., Volberding, Lan D., John, Jason A., Wilson, Tony W., Petro, Nathan M.

2025

Overview

•Cannabis is thought to modulate GABAergic interneuronal signaling in the cortex.•GABAergic networks support cortical gamma oscillations and functional connectivity.•MEG based visual entrainment tasks were used to probe gamma circuit integrity.•Gamma oscillations in early visual cortex remain intact with regular cannabis use.•Higher-order gamma functional connectivity was disrupted in those who use cannabis. Cannabis is a widely-used illicit substance in the United States, and heavy cannabis use has been linked to deficits across multiple cognitive domains. Mechanistically, cannabis affects endocannabinoid receptors densely distributed among GABAergic interneurons throughout the cortex and cerebellum. Such interneuronal networks are known to be crucial in the generation of fast neural gamma-band responses, which support perceptual and cognitive processing and have been frequently implicated in cannabis use. However, studies to date have tended to focus on higher-order processing supported by gamma oscillations, with limited work examining more fundamental aspects of gamma circuit integrity. Herein, 84 adults who regularly use cannabis and 90 demographically-matched nonusers underwent high-density magnetoencephalography during a visual entrainment task involving three gamma-band flicker frequencies (32, 40, and 48 Hz). The resulting data were imaged in the time-frequency domain and the dynamic neural time series were extracted and tested for effects of hemisphere, frequency, and group, and then used to compute whole-brain dynamic functional connectivity. Our results indicated strong gamma entrainment in the bilateral primary visual cortices (V1), with 32 Hz responses being the strongest across both groups (p < .001) and right V1 activity being stronger than left across groups and frequencies (p = .002). Additionally, there were group-by-condition interactions in connectivity maps (p < .005), with the cannabis group having elevated 32 Hz connectivity between V1 and higher-order visual regions relative to controls. These findings suggest that basic gamma circuitry remains intact despite heavy cannabis use, while gamma functional connectivity is preferentially affected and this may lead to the higher-order deficits.

• Publisher: Elsevier Inc,Elsevier Limited,Elsevier
• Subject: Adult / Cannabinoid receptors / Cannabis / Cerebellum / Cognitive ability / Entrainment / Female / Gamma Rhythm - drug effects / Gamma Rhythm - physiology / Hash / Humans / Information processing / Interneurons / Magnetoencephalography / Magnetoencephalography - methods / Male / Marijuana / Marijuana Use / Medical imaging / MEG / Nerve Net - drug effects / Nerve Net - physiopathology / Neural networks / Neuroimaging / Oscillations / Paradigms / Primary Visual Cortex - drug effects / Primary Visual Cortex - physiology / Primary Visual Cortex - physiopathology / Radiology/Diagnostic Imaging / Visual cortex / Visual Cortex - drug effects / Visual Cortex - physiopathology / Visual Perception - drug effects / Visual Perception - physiology / Young Adult / γ-Aminobutyric acid