The relationships of ‘ecstasy’ (MDMA) and cannabis use to impaired executive inhibition and access to semantic long‐term memory

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the relationship between the consumption of ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)) and cannabis, and performance on the random letter generation task which generates dependent variables drawing upon executive inhibition and access to semantic long-term memory (LTM). The participant group was a between-participant independent variable with users of both ecstasy and cannabis (E/C group, n = 15), users of cannabis but not ecstasy (CA group, n = 13) and controls with no exposure to these drugs (CO group, n = 12). Dependent variables measured violations of randomness: number of repeat sequences, number of alphabetical sequences (both drawing upon inhibition) and redundancy (drawing upon access to semantic LTM). E/C participants showed significantly higher redundancy than CO participants but did not differ from CA participants. There were no significant effects for the other dependent variables. A regression model comprising intelligence measures and estimates of ecstasy and cannabis consumption predicted redundancy scores, but only cannabis consumption contributed significantly to this prediction. Impaired access to semantic LTM may be related to cannabis consumption, although the involvement of ecstasy and other stimulant drugs cannot be excluded here. Executive inhibitory functioning, as measured by the random letter generation task, is unrelated to ecstasy and cannabis consumption.

Effects of Cannabis on Neurocognitive Functioning: Recent Advances, Neurodevelopmental Influences, and Sex Differences

“…Although this is not invariably the case, as some studies report intact immediate (Chang et al 2006; Gruber et al 2011; Wadsworth et al 2006) and delayed recall (Chang et al 2006; Gruber et al 2011) among cannabis users. Other evidence suggests that recall performance is negatively associated with amount of past year (Jager et al 2007) and lifetime cannabis use (Indlekofer et al 2009; Jager et al 2007; P. Murphy et al 2011; Solowij et al 2011), duration of cannabis use (Solowij et al 2011; Wadsworth et al 2006), frequency of cannabis use, and age of first cannabis use (Solowij et al 2011).…”

Signs & Symptoms of Dextromethorphan Exposure from YouTube

“…Mental health disorders are associated with particular patterns of interactions [27] and communication [28] online. This analysis may also provide a means to describe diseases by making their current textual descriptions computable.…”

Neurological and cognitive alterations induced by MDMA in humans

“…Inhibitory control, the ability to inhibit an automatic/dominant response when it is not appropriate does not appear to be affected by ecstasy use using a range of paradigms. Studies using the Stroop task (Back-Madruga et al, 2003;Croft et al, 2001;Gouzoulis-Mayfrank et al, 2000;Halpern et al, 2011;Morgan et al, 2002;Wagner et al, 2012), Random Letter Generation (Fisk et al, 2004;Fisk & Montgomery 2009;Montgomery et al, 2005;Murphy et al, 2011), and Go/NoGo paradigms (Gouzoulis-Mayfrank et al, 2003;Hanson & Luciana, 2010;Roberts & Garavan, 2010) do not report ecstasy-group differences relative to controls. When investigating task switching, the ability to switch attention back and forth between different tasks/aspects pf the same task, there is limited evidence for performance decrements related to ecstasy use.…”