Gamma–band neural oscillations play a key role in perception, associative learning, and conscious awareness. Cannabinoids have been shown to disrupt gamma-band oscillations in animal studies and to induce psychosis-like effects in healthy people.
A study published online ahead of print in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology evaluated the effects of the principal active constituent of cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), on evoked gamma oscillations. For the first time in humans, THC was shown to reduce evoked gamma oscillations, and that this reduction was positively related to the psychosis-like effects of THC.
Jose Cortes-Briones, a postdoctoral associate in psychiatry, is the study’s lead author. Deepak Cyril D’Souza, professor of psychiatry, is the study’s senior author. Additional authors include Patrick D. Skosnik, John Cahill, Brian Pittman, Ashley Williams, R. Andrew Sewell, and Mohini Ranganathan of Yale, and Daniel Mathalon, Brian Roach, and Judith Ford of the University of California San Francisco.
The study was conducted by the Schizophrenia Neuropharmacology Research Group at Yale (SNRGY) and funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Reference: Cortes-Briones et al. (2015), Δ9-THC Disrupts Gamma (γ)–Band Neural Oscillations in Humans. Neuropsychopharmacology. doi: 10.1038/npp.2015.53.