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Adolescent marijuana users have elevated risk-taking on the balloon analog risk task
Karen L Hanson1, Rachel E Thayer2, Susan F Tapert3
1VA Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health, San Diego, USA Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA klhanson@ucsd.edu.
Journal of Psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
|September 20, 2014
Summary
Adolescent marijuana users exhibit higher risk-taking behaviors compared to non-users. This elevated risk-taking was not consistently linked to executive function deficits, suggesting complex underlying mechanisms.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Adolescent Psychology
- Substance Abuse Research
Background:
- Regular marijuana use in adolescents is associated with increased propensity for unsafe risk-taking.
- The prefrontal cortex plays a role in both executive functioning and risk-taking behaviors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare risk-taking behaviors between adolescent marijuana users and non-users.
- To investigate the association between risk-taking and executive functioning in adolescents.
Main Methods:
- Fifty-eight adolescents (ages 17-20) participated, including 24 marijuana users and 34 controls.
- The Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) was used to measure behavioral risk-taking.
- Measures of substance use and executive function were also administered.
Main Results:
- Marijuana users exhibited significantly more "popped balloons" on the BART task, indicating higher risk-taking.
- Riskier BART performance predicted past 18-month hard drug and marijuana use.
- Marijuana users showed deficits in psychomotor set-shifting, but this did not correlate with risk-taking.
Conclusions:
- Adolescent marijuana users demonstrate elevated risk-taking, consistent with impaired risk processing.
- Risk-taking behavior in this population is not always directly associated with executive dysfunction, suggesting distinct neural pathways.
