Cannabis and Emotion Processing: A Review of Behavioral, Physiological, and Neural Responses

Abstract

While previous research has indicated that alcohol use is associated with difficulties in emotion processing and socioemotional functioning, less is known about the effects of cannabis on these functions. The purpose of this review article is to provide the current state of knowledge on the effects of cannabis on emotion processing with regard to behavioral, physiological, and neural responses. This narrative review synthesizes previous research investigating the effects of cannabis on emotion processing across studies that have utilized a number of experimental approaches to determine both the acute and chronic effects of cannabis on emotion processing. Limitations of current research and steps for future directions are discussed. Existing research has shown that cannabis use is associated with difficulties in emotion processing, such as impairments in correctly identifying emotions and problems with emotion differentiation. Electroencephalography (EEG) studies have produced mixed findings, but have considered a number of variables, such as participant sex, and comorbid depression. In addition, while there are mixed findings for the effects of cannabis on amygdalar brain activity across functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, several studies indicate that cannabis use is linked with decreased brain response in the frontal lobe while viewing emotional stimuli. To our knowledge, this is one of the first critical review articles focused on an emerging research area of cannabis and emotion processing. Synthesizing the existing findings in this developing research field is important for future prevention and intervention studies focused on promoting healthy socioemotional functioning in cannabis users