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from the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFh71YwZ4Y dept.
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
The development of neural circuits in youth, at a particularly important time in their lives, can be heavily influenced by external factors -- specifically the frequent and regular use of cannabis. A new study [...] reports that alterations in cognitive control -- an ensemble of processes by which the mind governs, regulates and guides behaviors, impulses, and decision-making based on goals are directly affected.
[...] The findings are based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquired from 28 adolescents and young adults (aged 14-23 years) with significant cannabis use and 32 age and sex-matched non-using healthy controls. Participants were scanned during their performance of a Simon Spatial Incompatibility Task, a cognitive control task that requires resolving cognitive conflict to respond accurately.
Compared to their healthy counterparts, the adolescents and young adults with significant cannabis use showed reduced activation in the frontostriatal circuits that support cognitive control and conflict resolution.
The authors also examined the degree to which fluctuations in activity in relation to conflict resolution is synchronized across the different regions comprised in this frontostriatal circuit (that is, to what extent are regions functionally connected with each other). Although circuit connectivity did not differ between cannabis-using and non-using youth, the research team found an association between how early individuals began regularly using cannabis and the extent to which frontostriatal regions were disrupted, suggesting that earlier chronic use may have a larger impact on circuit development than use of later onset.
Deficient Functioning of Frontostriatal Circuits During the Resolution of Cognitive Conflict in Cannabis-Using Youth (DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2018.09.436)
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday June 21 2019, @08:52PM (15 children)
Wait until it petrifies at about 25 before using any intoxicants.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Snow on Friday June 21 2019, @09:09PM (12 children)
That would be the smart thing to do. Is it the /best/ thing to do though?
You only get one life. Refusing any intoxicants until 25 can exclude you from a lot of fun.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Friday June 21 2019, @09:15PM (7 children)
No, that would be the conformist thing to do... the establishment thinks it knows best, but it doesn't really know and it is very slow to change.
Different is not necessarily worse, or better. One thing that recent history establishments have gotten wrong is a lack of tolerance for diversity. Diversity can be challenging, but it often yields rewards greater than the challenges it poses.
Or... we can all just watch 15 second spots by Nancy Reagan showing a frying egg as the image of "your brain on drugs" and accept that as the absolute truth. Not my first choice, but certainly one which was presented to the youth of my generation.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday June 21 2019, @10:09PM (3 children)
No, that would be the conformist thing to do...
No, it's the physically correct thing to do. The brain "matures" at ~25... Using intoxicants before then is not recommended for very obvious and medically sound reasons. But if you're convinced you won't live that long, the world's gonna end, etc, knock yourselves out. Hell, I did...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22 2019, @02:51AM (2 children)
Really? Well, that is the establishment line - complete with the sizzling fried egg TV spots.
I'm not saying it was a for-sure good thing for me, and I'm not saying it's a for-sure good thing for anybody, but, anecdotally, I had a f-ing miserable childhood with serious stress issues that left me literally shaking almost all the time. The self-imposed stress issues continued through into college, until I experimented with a little LSD and I do believe I experienced a pretty significant change at that point, around age 18. I still shake when I'm stressed out, but I found it a whole lot easier to just not get wound up about "the little shit," and in the words at least quoted by, if not of David Lee Roth: "it's all little shit." My shaking hands are 98% better now, and I'm generally happier with all of life. Could have been simple maturity, but I do think that the LSD played significant a role an certainly was coincident with a sharp change in the symptoms.
Does that mean I think dosing all 18 year olds with LSD is a good idea? No, not at all. Did I think LSD was going to help me before I took it? No, not at all. Do I now think that LSD can help some people change their brain chemistry/structure somehow and improve their quality of life? Yes, I do. Do I have a f-ing clue who it will help and who it will hurt? Or how it even works? No, I do not - but I believe that if the government would get out of the way and let researchers study it, they could come up with a diagnostic profile of people it could help. Native American rituals with psychedelics embody more knowledge/wisdom on this topic than modern science is even allowed to speculate about, which is a spectacular failing of the government/scientific community symbiote.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22 2019, @04:04AM (1 child)
> if the government would get out of the way and let researchers study it
You don't mention it, but I'm assuming you have read about some of the research done before LSD was outlawed? Leary was in on some of it and he was one smart guy (I had a chance to meet him in the mid-1980s, very together and quick thinking).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 23 2019, @11:39AM
I don't know how together I am, but quick thinking has been my blessing/curse both before and after LSD use.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22 2019, @12:24AM (1 child)
A lack of privacy, investigating, and tattling on your neighbors was the 'Communist thing to do.'
Having to show your papers while traveling was the 'Communist thing to do.'
Being punished for speaking out against authority was the 'Communist thing to do.'
I'm sure a few of you can remember other 80s era propaganda of anti-American cultural or legal norms which we are expected to accept as normal today. And how many Americans who were born in that time or earlier remember them or are voicing their dissent against what this country has officially become, and what it will soon technologically become.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday June 22 2019, @02:58AM
China is a very old, mature even, society. The United States is likely to become more like China, not less, in the future - regardless of labels like Capitalist, Communist, etc.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22 2019, @04:13AM
You ooze nonsense spoon-fed to your brain-damaged psyche.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @10:12PM (2 children)
If you're under 25, you'll have to stick to Adderall, Ritalin, Paxil, Prozac, Welbutrin, opioid pain killers, etc.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday June 22 2019, @02:55AM (1 child)
Dude, I know a child of Doctor/Nurse parents - he's been on some serious ADHD meds his whole life, they stunted his growth, he's barely 5' tall. He's the nicest guy you'll ever want to meet, but he's got some pretty serious doormat issues - like: lets people take advantage of him all the time. The meds have definitely made him into something that he wouldn't have been without them, and maybe that was a good thing? Nobody will ever know for sure - as long as they've got rich/stable parents, maybe the world needs more sweet little doormat people? They're nice to be around, but I don't think I'd like to be one of them.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22 2019, @10:36AM
To your point about doormat issues: a lot of ADHD kids have bad self esteem because it is hard for them to read social cues or control their behavior to match social expectations of others. It can be hard to make and keep friends for them. Some compensate by being too generous. This has nothing to do with meds.
The height issue... meds can cause some loss of potential height. That is I believe due to not eating enough, but I could be wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 25 2019, @03:21AM
YOLO is what young people use to justify doing stupid harmful stuff.
YOLO is what older people use to justify NOT doing stupid harmful stuff.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 22 2019, @01:12AM (1 child)
I was intoxicated by speed at an early age--learned to drive at age 5 and was racing around in go-karts, building mini-bikes, and related speedy adventures (off road) until I could get a license to drive on the road at 16. Intoxicants aren't all chemical...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Saturday June 22 2019, @03:02AM
Speed (go karts, and similar) are primarily an adrenaline releaser, though dopamine is a strong secondary, and the kind of sunshine wind in your hair you get from a convertible at speed triggers a serious seratonin surge.
The best chemicals are released from within your own body, not taken in pills, injections, patches, smoked, drunk, etc.
🌻🌻 [google.com]