Novelty processing in cannabis use and psychotic-like experiences

Poster Session E - Monday, March 31, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Ethan Campbell¹ (ecampbell@unm.edu), Jeremy Hogeveen; ¹University of New Mexico

The relationship between cannabis use and psychosis is complex and still a matter of ongoing investigation. While much research has focused on psychotic spectrum disorders, subclinical psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) represent a large portion of the psychosis spectrum and may elucidate how cannabis use can increase the risk of adverse psychological outcomes during the critical stage of neurodevelopment in adolescence through young adulthood. Aberrant salience attribution has been identified as a potential mechanistic link between PLEs and cannabis use, and specific forms of salience such as novelty may inform this relationship. To assess the role of novelty salience processing in cannabis and PLEs, 101 participants aged 13-21 were assessed for lifetime cannabis use frequency, PLEs, and fMRI during movie stimuli and a novelty bandit task. Replicating prior findings, weekly cannabis use frequency correlated positively with PLEs after controlling for alcohol and nicotine use (β = .257, p = .012). Forthcoming analyses will assess the dynamic connectivity of salience network hubs (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula) during movie-watching to identify ROIs that are engaged by narrative audiovisual stimuli for subsequent task-based analysis. Salience network hubs and these dynamically-engaged ROIs will then be assessed as a function of stimulus novelty and novelty-related decision-making, and these processes will be analyzed as potential mechanisms linking cannabis use frequency and PLEs. These findings will contribute to an understanding of cannabis neuropharmacology role and its potential role in PLEs as a function of aberrant neurobehavioral processing of novelty.

Topic Area: OTHER