What topics does this cannabis study cover?

This study covers research on: Mental Health, Neuroprotection.

Where was this research published?

Published in Addiction (Abingdon, England) on June 9, 2026.

Mental Health Neuroprotection

Brain scans challenge assumptions about cannabis addiction and reward

Brain reward function in young people with cannabis use disorder: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Addiction (Abingdon, England) • June 9, 2026 • Moderately Relevant

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AI Summary

This groundbreaking study challenges a widely held assumption in addiction neuroscience by examining brain reward function in young people with cannabis use disorder (CUD). Using functional brain imaging, researchers compared how the brains of 64 individuals with CUD responded to monetary rewards compared to 28 control participants during a monetary incentive delay task. Contrary to prevailing theories suggesting that substance use disorders involve a "blunted" or underactive reward system, the findings paint a more nuanced picture.

The key discovery was unexpected: people with CUD did not show reduced activity in traditional reward processing regions like the ventral striatum or orbitofrontal cortex. Instead, the CUD group exhibited greater activation in the medial/superior frontal cortex during reward anticipation. However, this unusual activity pattern was notably unrelated to cannabis use severity, suggesting it may not be a direct consequence of cannabis consumption. The researchers carefully controlled for confounding factors including age, sex, alcohol use, and depression to isolate cannabis-specific effects.

These findings have important implications for understanding cannabis use disorder. Rather than supporting the simple model of addiction as a "broken reward system," the results suggest that CUD may involve more complex alterations in brain function that don't necessarily reflect the dramatic reward system dysfunction seen in other substance use disorders. This opens new questions about what mechanisms actually drive cannabis dependence and highlights the need for further research into non-reward brain regions and cognitive processes that may be more directly affected by chronic cannabis use."

📄 Original Abstract

Cannabis use disorder (CUD) affects ~50 million people globally. Neuroscientific theories suggest that a blunted neural response to non-drug rewards is a hallmark of substance use disorders; however, this remains untested in CUD. The current study tested whether brain reward system responses to the anticipation and feedback of monetary rewards differed in people with CUD and controls. Observational study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were recruited from universities and the community in Wollongong, Australia. Sixty-four individuals with CUD (20 female) and 28 controls (9 female), aged 18-32 years. Participants completed a monetary incentive delay task during fMRI. We compared blood-oxygen-level-dependent responses during reward anticipation and reward feedback between the CUD and control groups using hypothesis-driven region of interest analyses in brain areas implicated in reward pathways (i.e., orbitofrontal cortex, cingulum, insula, putamen, dorsal caudate, ventral striatum) and data-driven whole-brain analyses, controlling for age, sex, alcohol use, and depressive symptoms. Correlations tested associations between beta values from regions showing statistically significant group differences and severity of cannabis use measured with the Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test (CUDIT), as well as other cannabis use and mental health measures. In whole-brain analyses, the CUD group showed statistically significantly greater left medial/superior frontal activity during reward anticipation compared with the control group (p < 0.001). Activity in this region was not associated with CUDIT scores or any other cannabis use or mental health variables. All region of interest analyses were statistically non-significant (all p > 0.05). People with cannabis use disorder do not appear to show evidence of a hypoactive reward system on the Monetary Incentive Delay task compared with controls. There may be differences in non-reward regions, but these appear unrelated to cannabis use severity.

Paper Type

📄 Research

Publication

Journal: Addiction (Abingdon, England)
Published: June 9, 2026
PMID: 42266038
DOI: 10.1111/add.70492

Authors (16)

Martine Skumlien Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King's College London, London, UK.
Lisa-Marie Greenwood School of Medicine and Psychology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
Arush Honnedevasthana Arun Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Centre of Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Isabella Goodwin Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre, School of Health and Behavioural Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia.
Anastasia Paloubis Neuroscience of Addiction and Mental Health Program, Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre, School of Health and Behavioural Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia.
+11 more authors