Honors College Thesis
 

Effort-Based Decision Making and Self-Reported Apathy in Frequent Cannabis Users and Healthy Controls

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/honors_college_theses/ws859p06b

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  • Cannabis use rates have been escalating in recent years within the United States. The effects of cannabis on motivation and effort-based decision making have been of increased interest. Amotivational syndrome is a term used to refer to a lack of motivation, passive personality, non-productive behavior, and lowered educational attainment due to chronic cannabis use. However, much of past literature has found mixed findings for the effects of cannabis on motivation; therefore, the current study aimed to evaluate the association between frequent cannabis use and motivated behavior in individuals 18 years and older. Frequent cannabis users and healthy controls completed the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT), a computerized button pressing task that measures effort-based decision making whereby participants must increase effort for monetary reward. The main finding of this study indicated that relative to healthy controls, cannabis users were significantly more likely to select hard tasks, indicating a greater likelihood to exert more effort for reward. After controlling for group differences in alcohol use and depression, self-reported apathy was no longer significantly different between cannabis users and healthy controls. These findings may reflect atypical reward processing and suboptimal integration of information during decision making in frequent cannabis users.
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  • Ongoing Research
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  • 2021-05-24 to 2022-06-25

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