Residual effects of cannabis use on attentional bias towards fearful faces

Torrence, Robert D.; Rojas, Donald C.; Troup, Lucy J.

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.09.008

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Within cannabis users there was increased P1 amplitude toward happy facial expressions, which suggests cannabis users may have increased early processing of happy facial expressions compared to other emotions (Torrence et al, 2019). A previous study conducted by Torrence et al (2018) suggested decreased attentional biases toward fearful faces in cannabis users as reflected in a decreased P1 amplitude during a dot-probe task in comparison to controls. This is interesting because anxiety tends to be related to greater attentional bias toward fearful faces.…”

Section: Human Eeg Studies Of Cannabis and Emotion Processingmentioning

confidence: 86%

Cannabis and emotion processing: A review of behavioral, physiological, and neural responses.

MacKenzie

Cservenka

2023

Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology

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While previous research has indicated that alcohol use is associated with difficulties in emotion processing and socioemotional functioning, less is known about the effects of cannabis on these functions. The purpose of this review article is to provide the current state of knowledge on the effects of cannabis on emotion processing with regard to behavioral, physiological, and neural responses. This narrative review synthesizes previous research investigating the effects of cannabis on emotion processing across studies that have utilized a number of experimental approaches to determine both the acute and chronic effects of cannabis on emotion processing. Limitations of current research and steps for future directions are discussed. Existing research has shown that cannabis use is associated with difficulties in emotion processing, such as impairments in correctly identifying emotions and problems with emotion differentiation. Electroencephalography (EEG) studies have produced mixed findings, but have considered a number of variables, such as participant sex, and comorbid depression. In addition, while there are mixed findings for the effects of cannabis on amygdalar brain activity across functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, several studies indicate that cannabis use is linked with decreased brain response in the frontal lobe while viewing emotional stimuli. To our knowledge, this is one of the first critical review articles focused on an emerging research area of cannabis and emotion processing. Synthesizing the existing findings in this developing research field is important for future prevention and intervention studies focused on promoting healthy socioemotional functioning in cannabis users. Public Health SignificanceStudies synthesized in this review article suggest that cannabis users may have impairments in emotion processing at the behavioral, physiological, and neural level. Understanding these difficulties could aid prevention, intervention, and treatment efforts aimed at promoting healthy socioemotional functioning in cannabis users.

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Section: Human Eeg Studies Of Cannabis and Emotion Processingmentioning

confidence: 86%

Cannabis and emotion processing: A review of behavioral, physiological, and neural responses.

MacKenzie

Cservenka

2023

Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology

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“…It is likely that this is in part attributable to the analysis of this ERP component (and possibly other lateralized posterior ERPs such as the P1 and N1). That is, if attentional resources are directed to the emotional face in the dot‐probe task, this should elicit a spatially specific enhancement of the N170 contralateral to the attended stimulus (Carlson & Reinke, 2010; Torrence et al., 2018). However, analysis approaches accounting for this visual field × hemisphere interaction are rarely used in ABM studies of the N170.…”

Section: Limitations Of the Current State Of The Field And Recommendations For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

A systematic review of event‐related potentials as outcome measures of attention bias modification

Carlson

2021

Psychophysiology

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| BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE 1.1 | Attention bias and attention bias modification Attention bias modification (ABM) was introduced nearly two decades ago as a method of modifying (i.e., increasing or decreasing) attentional biases or preferences (MacLeod et al., 2002;Mathews & MacLeod, 2002). Attentional bias arises due to the limited processing capacity of the brain. Humans are unable to process all sensory information equally and accordingly must selectively prioritize a subset of sensory inputs (Desimone & Duncan, 1995). Emotional salience-and in particular threat-relevance-is one way in which sensory information is prioritized (Ohman et al., 2001;Vuilleumier, 2005). An attentional bias to threat, therefore, refers to the preferential allocation of attentional resources to threatening stimuli relative to nonthreatening stimuli. Attention bias can be directly measured with psychophysiological measures such as event-related potentials (ERPs) or indirectly through reaction time (RT) measures . This review focuses on the usage of ERPs as outcome measures of ABM training, both as measures of attentional bias as well as measures of more distant cognitive processes influenced by ABM.

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“…Similarly, behavioral studies in adults with CUD, though less common, also report expression recognition impairment ( 28 – 30 ). Moreover, neuro-imaging work indicates that adolescents and adults with significant cannabis use show reduced medial frontal cortical responses ( 25 , 31 ) and atypical event-related potentials to emotional facial expressions ( 32 – 35 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alcohol and Cannabis Use Disorder Symptom Severity, Conduct Disorder, and Callous-Unemotional Traits and Impairment in Expression Recognition

et al. 2021

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Background: Alcohol and cannabis are commonly used by adolescents in the United States. Both alcohol use disorder (AUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD) have been associated with reduced emotion expression recognition ability. However, this work has primarily occurred in adults and has not considered neuro-cognitive risk factors associated with conduct problems that commonly co-occur with, and precede, substance use. Yet, conduct problems are also associated with reduced emotion expression recognition ability. The current study investigated the extent of negative association between AUD and CUD symptom severity and expression recognition ability over and above any association of expression recognition ability with conduct problems [conduct disorder (CD) diagnostic status].Methods: In this study, 152 youths aged 12.5–18 years (56 female; 60 diagnosed with CD) completed a rapid presentation morphed intensity facial expression task to investigate the association between relative severity of AUD/CUD and expression recognition ability.Results: Cannabis use disorder identification test (CUDIT) scores were negatively associated with recognition accuracy for higher intensity (particularly sad and fearful) expressions while CD diagnostic status was independently negatively associated with recognition of sad expressions. Alcohol use disorder identification test (AUDIT) scores were not significantly associated with expression recognition ability.Conclusions: These data indicate that relative severity of CUD and CD diagnostic status are statistically independently associated with reduced expression recognition ability. On the basis of these data, we speculate that increased cannabis use during adolescence may exacerbate a neuro-cognitive risk factor for the emergence of aggression and antisocial behavior.

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Residual effects of cannabis use on attentional bias towards fearful faces

Cited by 12 publications

References 69 publications

Cannabis and emotion processing: A review of behavioral, physiological, and neural responses.

Cannabis and emotion processing: A review of behavioral, physiological, and neural responses.

A systematic review of event‐related potentials as outcome measures of attention bias modification

Alcohol and Cannabis Use Disorder Symptom Severity, Conduct Disorder, and Callous-Unemotional Traits and Impairment in Expression Recognition

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