If you've had moments where you walked into the kitchen and wondered what you were doing there or were talking on the phone and started looking for the same phone to check a text, you're not alone.
But a new study from Washington State University found that those who smoke cannabis may have a worse case of it because marijuana can "blur and reshape memories, affecting various memory systems people rely on in daily life."
The study, led by Carrie Cuttler and Ryan McLaughlin, recruited 120 regular cannabis users and found that cannabis significantly impacted most memory measures, particularly false memory and source memory. Specifically, researchers discovered that THC consumption can lead to recalling words that were never presented and struggling with tasks like remembering appointments.
Published in "The Journal of Psychopharmacology," the study discovered that "cannabis increased susceptibility to false memories and detrimentally impacted verbal memory (immediate, delayed, working), visuospatial memory (immediate, delayed), event-cued prospective memory, source memory, and temporal order memory."
How much pot did it take for the effect? That's the thing. Per the study, it didn't matter because "there were no significant differences between the moderate and high dose groups."
Overall, cannabis users had difficulty remembering where they received information and showed impairments in prospective memory, affecting tasks like remembering to take medication.
Episodic content memory, the ability to remember personally experienced events, was not significantly impacted by cannabis use, highlighting the need for more research on the short-term cognitive effects of cannabis.
This tracks with the findings of numerous other studies, including one this fall in the journal JAMA Network Open, that found "cannabis use reduced brain activity in certain areas of the brain responsible for decision-making, memory, paying attention and emotional processing. However, the only test that reached statistical significance was working memory, such as remembering a shopping list or following verbal instructions."
The study added that "63% of heavy lifetime cannabis users exhibited reduced brain activity during a working memory task, while 68% of people who tested positive for recent use of cannabis also demonstrated a similar impact."
