Endocannabinoids for Social Processing (ESP)

Walking into a room full of strangers can be daunting for anyone; but for people with certain psychiatric disorders, this feeling can be so overwhelming they avoid social situations altogether. This feeling can originate from distorted ideas about how others perceive them. To help people struggling with these social impairments, we need to better understand what brain processes are responsible for social perceptions of judgment.

Our body’s innate cannabinoid system is thought to be critically involved in social behavior. The endocannabinoid is the natural system in our brain that responds to THC, the primary psychoactive chemical in cannabis. Animal studies have shown that this system influences areas of the brain important for social interaction, and when altered, social behaviors are impaired. Nevertheless, we understand little about how the cannabinoid system impacts human social behavior.

In this study, we will use tasks that probe different facets of social processing, together with blood and hair sample collection to investigate how endocannabinoid levels predict social behavior. Blood, physiological, and self-report measures will also be used to measure the effects of each social task on stress and emotions. This project will begin to explore the endocannabinoid system as a novel target for improving quality of life for those with impairments in social processing.

Study is now completed, please stay tuned for more information!