Contrary to the popular belief that cannabis increases creativity, a study proves that regular use of the substance actually decreases the ability to be creative and also reduces your ability to be aware of your own mistakes.
Mikael Kowal, a psychologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands conducted a study on 40 individuals who were regular users of cannabis and 20 non-users who were given a placebo.
The study examined direct and chronic effects of cannabis on dopamine-related functions, such as creative thinking and the ability to recognise one’s own mistakes.
According to the study, cannabis users were less able to brainstorm, a mental process that is essential for creative performance. Their brain processes which are involved in monitoring mistakes were also found to be working less efficiently.
Kowal says that high dose of cannabis seem to affect both the unconscious processing of mistakes, as well as the conscious stages of error identification.
“It is important that we gather more knowledge about the effects of cannabis on a person’s ability to detect mistakes. This can help with putting together a treatment programme for drug addiction,” he said.
According to the research, long term effects of cannabis included disruption in activity of dopamine in the brain. It was found that heavy users a significant reduction was seen in the frequency of spontaneous eye blinking, an indicator to low levels of dopamine production.
Kowal says that regular use of cannabis may not necessarily have a disastrous impact on dopamine production and that it might also be connected to the age at which the substance was used first.
Also, the type of cannabis and the way neurobiological processes interact with one another can also result in varied effects.
