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Abstract #2162

Altered Cortical Thickness in Young Cannabis Abusers

Deborah Yurgelun-Todd1,2, Piotr Bogorodzki3, Melissa Lopez-Larson1,2, Robert Kurjata3, John Churchwell1, Jadwiga Rogowska4

1Brain Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; 2VISN 19 MIRECC, Salt Lake City, UT, United States; 3Institute of Radioelectronics, Warsaw Technical University, Warsaw, Poland; 4Brain Imaging Center, McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, United States


It is unknown whether altered cortical thickness during adolescence is associated with marijuana (MJ) use. This investigation used cortical-surface based techniques to compare MJ using adolescents and healthy controls (HC). Eighteen adolescents with DSM-IV MJ Dependence and 18 HCs had an MRI scans using a 3T Siemens Trio scanner. Cortical reconstruction and volumetric segmentation was performed with the Freesurfer image analysis suite. Compared to HCs, MJ users had decreased cortical thickness in bilateral superior frontal cortex and bilateral and left insula. Furthermore, the average thickness of the right insula was found to negatively correlate with age of first MJ use.