Study links routine marijuana use to greater empathy levels.
Enhanced brain connectivity observed in cannabis users.
Possible healing benefits for social conditions.
A research study in the Journal of Neuroscience Research study suggests that routine cannabis users might have an enhanced ability to understand others feelings, supported by stronger connection in the anterior cingulate, a brain region associated with compassion.
Research shows that cannabis users show improved compassion, providing prospective insights into treatments for social interaction disorders.
Scientists have revealed that people who regularly utilize cannabis may be more attuned to the emotions of others. The findings open new avenues for considering cannabis in therapeutic circumstances for social disorders.
” Although more research is required, these outcomes open an amazing new window for exploring the potential impacts of cannabis in helping treatments for conditions including deficits in social interactions, such as sociopathy, social stress and anxiety, and avoidant character disorder, to name a few,” stated co-author Víctor Olalde-Mathieu, PhD, of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Reference: “Empathy-related differences in the anterior cingulate practical connectivity of routine cannabis users when compared to controls” by Víctor E. Olalde-Mathieu, Daniel Atilano-Barbosa, Arafat Angulo-Perkins, Giovanna L Licea-Haquet, Cesar Arturo Dominguez-Frausto, Fernando A. Barrios and Sarael Alcauter, 8 November 2023, Journal of Neuroscience Research.DOI: 10.1002/ jnr.25252.
In a study released on November 8 in the Journal of Neuroscience Research, mental assessments indicated that people who regularly use cannabis, or cannabis, tend to have a higher understanding of the feelings of others. Brain imaging tests also exposed that cannabis users anterior cingulate– an area generally impacted by cannabis usage and related to empathy– had stronger connection with brain regions related to sensing the emotional states of others within ones own body.
The research study consisted of 85 regular marijuana users and 51 non-consumers who finished psychometric tests and a subset of 46 users and 34 nonusers who underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging exams.