Brain reward responses in young people with cannabis use disorder with Martine Skumlien and Valentina Lorenzetti

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to Dr Martine Skumlien and Professor Valentina Lorenzetti. Martine is a research fellow at King’s College London in the UK and Valentina is a professor at the Australian Catholic University in Australia. The interview covers Martine and Valentina’s research article on brain reward function in young people with cannabis use disorder.

• The idea that the brain reward system is affected in people with cannabis use disorder [01:28]
• How our understanding of the neuroscience behind cannabis use disorder affects how we treat cannabis use disorder [03:46]
• The novel contribution of Martine and Valentina’s study [06:06]
• How Martine and Valentina investigated the brain reward system in cannabis use disorder [08:18]
• The key findings from the study [09:24]
• How we think about the neuroscience of cannabis use disorder [12:33]
• How do we make sense of the findings alongside the current evidence base [14:33]
• How the findings sit in the theory of addiction as a brain disease [19:50]
• The wider implications on future treatment of cannabis use disorder [21:55]

About Tsen Vei Lim: Tsen Vei is an academic fellow supported by the Society for the Study of Addiction, currently based at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. His research integrates computational modelling, experimental psychology, and neuroimaging to understand the neuropsychological basis of addictive behaviours. He holds a PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bath (UK).

About Martine Skumlien: Martine is a Research Fellow at the King’s College London Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre. Her work focuses on cannabis harm reduction, policy, and impact on the brain. She was previously a research associate in the National Institutes for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Policy Research Unit in Addictions where she conducted research to inform policy within the drug and addictions field, and at the University of Bath where she carried out mixed-methods research into drug checking and detection of novel psychoactive substances. She earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge, investigating how cannabis use influences motivation and reward processing in the brain.

About Valentina Lorenzetti: Valentina is a professor, founding Lead of the Neuroscience of Addiction & Mental Health Program, and co-founding Deputy Director of the Healthy Brain and Mind Research Centre at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne Australia. She also serves as Senior Editor of the journal Addiction. Valentina has dedicated her career to understanding the neurobiology behind how people move into, and out of, addiction and entrenched mental health problems, across Australia, the UK, and Brazil, with a consistent focus on identifying with precision the core neurocircuitry affected and translating that understanding into effective intervention. Valentina’s program combines advanced multimodal neuroimaging, neuromodulation tools, global multi-site cohorts, and novel interventions such as cannabidiol, craving management strategies, and neurofeedback.

Tsen Vei, Martine and Valentina have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Original article: Brain reward function in young people with cannabis use disorder: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70492

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Music provided by Jack Shakespeare.

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