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A comment on Brain changes are associated with casual marijuana use in young adults.

Re:Brain changes are associated with casual marijuana use in... by revscat on Thursday August 28, 2014 @12:58PM (#8238316)
tl;dr: "The scientists found that the more the marijuana users reported consuming, the greater the abnormalities in the nucleus accumbens and amygdala. The shape and density of both of these regions also differed between marijuana users and non-users."

Nucleus accumbens: responsible for pleasure & reinforcement, maternal behavior. Direct stimulation has been shown to successfully decrease the effects of depression.

Amygdala: Responsible for emotional learning, memories of emotional experiences, memory consolidation, and emotional regulation.

All sources Wikipedia. I am not a neuroscientist, just trying to get a better understanding.

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Re:Brain changes are associated with casual marijuana use in... by kennywinker on Thursday August 28, 2014 @01:07PM (#8238379)
It's important to note that the study itself seems to make no mention of negative effects. Change yes, but not all change is negative. The article casts this as proof that marijuana is bad for you, but the study itself only notes evidence of an effect on brain structure... Not what the change means in real world terms.
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Re:Brain changes are associated with casual marijuana use in... by whiskeySix on Thursday August 28, 2014 @02:21PM (#8238833)
Exactly. This was my first response to the study. Came to the comments to see if anyone could shed any light on the real world implications of this study.
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