Do You Know These Quick Facts About Marijuana And The Brain?

How do the chemicals in marijuana change the way a person sees, hears, smells, tastes, and feels things?

When someone uses marijuana, these chemicals travel through the bloodstream and quickly attach to special places on the brain’s nerve cells. These places are called receptors, because they receive information from other nerve cells and from chemicals. When a receptor receives information, it causes changes in the nerve cell.

The chemical in marijuana that has a big impact on the brain is called THC — tetrahydrocannabinol. (Whew! Try saying that 10 times fast.) Scientists recently discovered that some areas of the brain have a lot of THC receptors, while others have very few or none. These clues are helping researchers figure out exactly how THC works in the brain.

Marijuana may cause some parts of the body to react in different ways. What do you know about:

1. Rapid Heartbeat

2. Dilated blood vessels

3. A feeling of panic

4. Daily cough and more frequent chest colds.

One region of the brain that contains a lot of THC receptors is the hippocampus, which processes memory. When THC attaches to receptors in the hippocampus, it weakens short-term memory.

The hippocampus also communicates with other brain regions that process new information into long-term memory. (That’s how you can remember today’s shopping list or a friend’s phone number.) In the brain, under the influence of marijuana, new information may never register – and may be lost from memory.

Maybe you’ve heard that in some people, marijuana can cause uncontrollable laughter one minute and paranoia the next. That’s because THC also influences emotions, probably by acting on a region of the brain called the limbic system.

And don’t forget this: THC can make something as simple as driving a car really dangerous.

Image via Wikipedia

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