Smoking Pot Will Make You Less Creative, Unable To Recognize Mistakes

A new study has recently revealed that aside from the health issues smoking pot is connected with, it could put you at risk of losing your creative thinking capabilities, and become less aware of your mistakes. Experts involved in the study strongly opposes to the widespread belief that smoking pot enhances creativity.

Indian Express reported that Mikael Kowal, a psychologist at the Leiden University in the Netherlands conducted a research involving 40 people who regularly smoked pot with a control group of 20 non-users which were given a placebo. Kowal wanted to study the direct and long-term effects of marijuana on dopamine-related functions in the brain, which involves creative thinking and the ability to recognize one's own mistakes. Dopamine is also important for the brain to properly work and plays a huge role in the learning performance.

Findings showed that marijuana users were less able to brainstorm, which a mental process that is quite important for creative performance. "There is a widespread belief among users that these drugs enhance creativity. This experiment disproves that belief," said Kowal.

Kowal also showed that for long-term cannabis users, the brain process associated in monitoring mistakes does not also work as effectively as those of non-cannabis smokers. Hindustan Times reported that apparently, a high dose of cannabis seems to affect both the unconscious processing of mistakes and the later and more conscious stages of error processing.

"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 program for drug addiction," Kowal added.

In addition, NDTV wrote that chronic users were seen with a significant reduction in the frequency of spontaneous eye blinking, which is an obvious indication of a reduction in dopamine production. Other scientific research concluded that regular cannabis use does not actually have disastrous effects in the take-up of dopamine.

"It may well be that the age at which cannabis is first used is a crucial factor," Kowal explained. Experts also added that the type of cannabis and the way neurobiological processes interact with one another can also result in individual differences.