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Cannabis use during adolescence causes enduring cognitive dysfunction in some individuals but not others. Investigators examined possible factors for these different effects in a study of mice with or without the malfunctioning dominant-negative mutation of the DISC1 gene (DN-DISC1) in astrocytes in the hippocampus.
Mice were exposed to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) during their 3-week adolescence (corresponding to human ages 12–19 years). Cognitive testing occurred 3 weeks after THC exposure ended, when mice were in adulthood. In male mice with DN-DISC1 in hippocampal astrocytes, adolescent THC exposure was associated with defective recognition memory in adulthood. The impact on recognition memory was mediated by activation of proinfla…