Neuroscience of Marijuana Impaired Driving

The objective of this project is to develop testing scenarios, simulator testing, and data analysis support for a National Institute of Drug Abuse grant.

For this project, WTI will work with Yale University on a National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) grant. Neuroscience of Marijuana Impaired Driving will assess driving abilities following marijuana intoxication, using medium and high-potency smoked marijuana, compared to a placebo in a double-blind design that measures driving-related cognitive abilities, driving performance in a realistic simulator, and virtual driving plus other relevant cognitive tasks in an MRI scanner. All three types of measures are assessed repeatedly over several hours following intoxication to assess longitudinal progression of impairment.  WTI will help develop/refine the simulated driving MRI paradigms, and then produce multiple novel scenarios that contain the experimental elements needed for the project across the multi-day/multi-session testing protocol. As a final validation, WTI’s full-motion, 360° simulator at MSU will be used to test all scenarios on a pilot sample chosen for demographic similarity to the participants to be examined in the study. WTI staff will also participate in data analyses, contribute to data interpretation, and assist with manuscript preparation.