Processing of Salient Emotional Stimuli as a Function of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD)

NCT02291536 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: AB_THC_CBD
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 20
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Attentional blink refers to a phenomenon where the detection of the second of two target stimuli that are presented in Short succession within a stream of stimuli is impaired. This is explained by an insufficient availability of attentional resources. Additionally, emotionally salient stimuli, like for example pictures with a positive or negative content, are detected more often compared to neutral pictures during this attentional blink period. Cannabinoids are involved in the modulation of cognitive, attentional, and emotional processes. Interestingly, data from animals suggests that THC and CBD, both active ingredients in the Cannabis sativa plant, have opposing effects on brain cannabinoid (CB1) receptors. CB1 receptors modulate the expression of emotionally salient conditioned association in rats, if salience processes in humans are modulated in the same way remains unclear. Employing a task to detect salient stimuli, Bhattacharyya et al. (2012) showed that THC seems to make non-salient standard stimuli more salient. They showed decreased activation of the right caudate and increased right prefrontal cortex stimuli during processing of salient stimuli. Importantly, this was associated with decreased response times to standard relative to oddball stimuli. Generally, THC and CBD differentially modulate brain areas associated with attentional salience processing. For example THC seems to increase prefrontal and striatal activation whereas CBD seems to decrease it. The investigators assume that THC increases the number of correctly detected emotional stimuli during the attentional blink period, whereas CBD has no effect. Additionally, the investigators assume that pictures of the positive category are detected with higher accuracy than negative ones under the influence of THC.

Conditions

Healthy Humans

Keywords

THC and CBD; Attentional blink

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Correctly identified emotional pictures during the attentional blink period

  Number of correctly identified emotional pictures that were presented during the attentional blink period.

  immediate

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Reaction time to correctly identified emotional pictures during the attentional blink period

  immediate

Study Arms (3)

tetrahydrocannabinol

EXPERIMENTAL

oral administration of 10mg of tetrahydrocannabinol, once

Drug: tetrahydrocannabinol

cannabidiol

EXPERIMENTAL

oral administration of cannabidiol, 600mg, once

Drug: cannabidiol

placebo

PLACEBO COMPARATOR

oral administration of placebo, once

Other: placebo

Interventions

tetrahydrocannabinol DRUG

tetrahydrocannabinol

cannabidiol DRUG

cannabidiol

placebo OTHER

placebo

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 65 Years
• Sex: male
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• male
• age between 18 and 65 years
• right-handed

You may not qualify if:

• consumption of cannabis more than 5 times
• substance abuse (apart from nicotine)
• psychiatric disorders
• epilepsy
• chronic diseases (e.g. diabetes)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim: lead

Study Sites (1)

Central Institute of Mental Health

Mannheim, 68159, Germany

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Color Vision Defects

Interventions

Dronabinol; Cannabidiol

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Vision Disorders; Sensation Disorders; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Cone Dystrophy; Eye Diseases, Hereditary; Eye Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Cannabinoids; Terpenes; Hydrocarbons; Organic Chemicals

Study Officials

• Oliver Grimm, MD

  Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, INVESTIGATOR
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: November 11, 2014
• First Posted: November 14, 2014
• Study Start: February 1, 2014
• Primary Completion: December 1, 2014
• Study Completion: December 1, 2014
• Last Updated: January 16, 2015

Record last verified: 2014-11

Locations

DE (1)