TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2009//
TI  - Long-term effects of cannabis on oculomotor function in humans
JO  - Journal of psychopharmacology
A1  - Huestegge, L.
A1  - Radach, Ralph
A1  - Kunert, Hj
SP  - 714
EP  - 722
VL  - 23
IS  - 6
N2  - Cannabis is known to affect human cognitive and visuomotor skills directly after consumption. Some studies even point to rather long-lasting effects, especially   after chronic tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) abuse. However, it is still unknown whether long-term effects on basic visual and oculomotor processing may exist. In the  present study, the performance of 20 healthy long-term cannabis users without acute THC intoxication and 20 control subjects were examined in four basic visuomotor  paradigms to search for specific long-term impairments. Subjects were asked to perform: 1) reflexive saccades to visual targets (prosaccades), including gap and  overlap conditions, 2) voluntary antisaccades, 3) memory-guided saccades and 4) double-step saccades. Spatial and temporal parameters of the saccades were  subsequently analysed. THC subjects exhibited a significant increase of latency in the prosaccade and antisaccade tasks, as well as prolonged saccade amplitudes in the antisaccade and memory-guided task, compared with the control subjects. The results point to substantial and specific long-term deficits in basic temporal processing of saccades and impaired visuo-spatial working memory. We suggest that these impairments are a major contributor to degraded performance of chronic users in a vital everyday task like visual search, and they might potentially also affect spatial navigation and reading.<p />
LA  - 
SN  - 0269-8811
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0269881108091601
ID  - ref1
ER  -