Dos(e)Age: Role of Dose and Age in the Long-Term Effect of Cannabinoids on Cognition

Cannabis is still the most widely used illicit drug around the world. While its use has always been prevalent among adolescents, recent evidence suggests that its consumption is also increasing among other population groups, such as pregnant women and aged people. Given the known impact of cannabis on brain development and behavior, it is important to dissect the possible long-term impact of its use across different age groups, especially on measures of cognitive performance. Animal models of cannabinoid exposure have represented a fundamental tool to characterize the long-lasting consequences of cannabinoids on cognitive performance and helped to identify possible factors that could modulate cannabinoids effects in the long term, such as the age of exposure and doses administered. This scoping review was systematically conducted using PubMed and includes papers published from 2015 to December 2021 that examined the effects of cannabinoids, either natural or synthetic, on cognitive performance in animal models where exposure occurred in the prenatal period, during adolescence, or in older animals. Overall, available data clearly point to a crucial role of age in determining the long-term effect of cannabinoid on cognition, highlighting possible detrimental consequences during brain development (prenatal and adolescent exposure) and beneficial outcomes in old age. In contrast, despite the recent advances in the field, it appears difficult to clearly establish a possible role of dosage in the effects of cannabinoids on cognition, especially when the adolescent period is taken into account.     

Shifts of mathematical thinking in adolescence

This theoretical paper relates key features of the mathematics adolescents are expected to learn in school to other aspects of adolescent development. Difficulties in mathematical learning at that age include changes in perspective and in the actions that are mathematically productive. Commonly-recommended methods of trying to engage adolescents in mathematics do not necessarily enable students to shift to new perceptions and new ways of constructing mathematical understandings, yet the shifts students need to make are in accord with other aspects of adolescent development.     

青春期体质指数及腰臀比的性别差异

目的 探讨青春期体质指数(BMI)及腰臀比(WHR)的性别差异。方法 整群抽取广州市六年级及高三学生1 309名,按内科常规进行BMI、腰围、臀围等检查,通过科学统计,分析青春期体质指数(BMI)及腰臀比(WHR)的性别差异。结果 在青春期各年龄段中,BMI、WHR均具有显著性差异,男生的BMI、WHR均显著大于女生;在相关性分析中,我们发现青春期WHR与性别的相关性比BMI与性别的相关性更为密切。结论 我市青春期学生中男性的超质量或肥胖现象比女生更为显著,而BMI更适合于评价整体学生体格发育情况。