Marijuana Impacts Fetal Brain Development During Pregnancy

Despite making favorable headlines throughout the United States following legalization in Washington and Colorado, marijuana is still regarded as a direct cause for the endangerment of fetal brain development.

Professor of Developmental Neurobiology, Tibor Harkany of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published his findings in this month's issue of the EMBO Journal. He stated that the consumption of cannabis during pregnancy directly affects the development of nerve cells of the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that orchestrates higher cognitive functions and drives memory formation.

In the study, cannabis (scientifically known as "delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol" or "THC") was tested on mice and human brain tissue in order to see how it affected an unborn fetus. Specifically, the scientists found that THC negatively impacted the operation of the structural platform between nerve cells. This primarily involves how the nerve cells will develop and function. If the nerve cells don't fully develop, then they will not connect properly--if at all.

"Even if THC only would cause small changes, its effect may well be sufficient to sensitize the brain to later stressors or diseases to provoke neuropsychiatric illnesses in those affected in the future," says Professor Harkany in this EurekAlert! article. "This concerns also the medical use of Cannabis, which should be avoided during pregnancy."

In addition to Professor Harkany's researchers in Sweden and Austria, researchers from the United States, Germany, Finland, and the United Kingdom participated thanks to funded grants from the Scottish Universities Life Science Alliance, the Swedish Research Council, Hjarnfonden, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Welcome Trust, and the National Institutes of Health.

The researchers arrived at the conclusion that "these developmental deficits may evoke life-long modifications to the brain function of those affected" (found in the same article) and should be avoided altogether during pregnancy. You can visit the article here to find out more about the study as well as the effects of smoking cannabis during pregnancy.