"In the last decade, most states have legalized marijuana for recreational and medicinal use. Millions of people in the United States alone use marijuana and it has been estimated that 3 in 10 people who use marijuana have marijuana use disorder. (Hasin 2001). Up to this point, some research has shown that Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), one of the two primary psychoactive elements in marijuana, may cause memory and learning deficits in the hippocampus of mice (Barfi 2021). Because of this, learning more about THC has widespread impact on the world and the future of healthcare. In particular, its vital that physicians and healthcare providers understand the potential risks and benefits associated with prescribing medical marijuana to patients. The purpose of our project is to better understand the effect that exercise has on learning and memory deficits caused by chronic exposure to THC. The primary measure of learning and memory in our experiments will be synaptic plasticity and long-term potentiation (LTP). Synaptic plasticity refers to the ability of the brain to adapt its connectivity while LTP refers to the strengthening of synapses in the brain. Overall, our results will lend greater insight into the mechanism of THC on the brain, and how exercise affects this mechanism. References Barfi, E., Tehrani, A. M., Mohammadpanah, M., Boroujeni, M. E., Meftahi, G. H., Sadeghi, Y., Eziy, S., Khatmi, A., Abdollahifar, M. A., Ghorbani, Z., & Aliaghaei, A. (2021). The role of tetrahydrocannabinol in inducing disrupted signaling cascades, hippocampal atrophy and memory defects. Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy, 113, 101943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchemneu.2021.101943 Hasin, D. S., Saha, T. D., Kerridge, B. T., Goldstein, R. B., Chou, S. P., Zhang, H., Jung, J., Pickering, R. P., Ruan, W. J., Smith, S. M., Huang, B., & Grant, B. F. (2001). Prevalence of marijuana use disorders in the united states between 2001-2002 and 2012-2013. American Medical Association (AMA). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.1858
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