A crossover study in 16 cannabis users found that cannabis without CBD dampened brain responses to music in reward and emotion regions, while cannabis containing CBD showed no significant difference from placebo on brain measures.
Read this if you use cannabis while listening to music and want to understand what it actually does to your brain's reward system.
Cannabis dampened music reward in 5 brain regions; CBD offset the effect
What the researchers found
Researchers gave 16 cannabis users three different treatments across separate sessions: cannabis with CBD, cannabis without CBD, and placebo, then measured brain responses to music using fMRI.
Cannabis without CBD dampened the brain's response to music in several key regions: bilateral auditory cortex, right hippocampus, right amygdala, and right ventral striatum (a core reward region). Activity in the ventral striatum correlated with how much pleasure participants reported from music.
Critically, cannabis with CBD did not differ from placebo on any brain imaging measures. CBD appeared to restore the functional connectivity between the ventral striatum and auditory cortex that THC-only cannabis disrupted.
Paradoxically, both types of cannabis increased participants' subjective ratings of wanting to listen to music and enhanced their sound perception, even though the brain's reward circuitry was less responsive.
Why it matters
This is one of the first studies to show that cannabis can dampen the brain's natural reward response to a pleasurable activity, which may help explain the motivational and anhedonia effects some users experience. The finding that CBD offsets this dampening adds to evidence that the CBD content of cannabis matters for its effects on reward processing.
The numbers in context
16 cannabis users. Three sessions (cannabis+CBD, cannabis alone, placebo). Cannabis dampened response in auditory cortex (p=.005/.008), hippocampus (p=.025), amygdala (p=.025), ventral striatum (p=.033). CBD restored striatal-auditory connectivity (p=.003/.030).
How the study worked
Double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study. 16 cannabis users inhaled cannabis with CBD, cannabis without CBD, and placebo across 3 sessions. fMRI measured brain responses to music vs. scrambled sound controls. Regions of interest identified from a meta-analysis of music-evoked reward and emotion.
What this study cannot tell us
Small sample size (16 participants) limits statistical power and generalizability. All participants were existing cannabis users, so results may not apply to naive users. The cannabis preparations used specific THC and CBD doses that may not reflect real-world products. Music preference was not individualized.
How to read the evidence
Randomized crossover design with neuroimaging provides moderate evidence, limited by small sample size but strengthened by within-subject comparisons.
When this study was published
Published in 2018. Research on CBD's modifying effects on THC has continued to expand.
The bigger picture
The disconnect between subjective experience (wanting to listen more, enhanced perception) and objective brain measures (dampened reward and emotion circuitry) is striking. It suggests cannabis may alter the subjective evaluation of pleasure without actually enhancing the neural reward response, which has implications for understanding cannabis use patterns and motivation.
Questions still open
- Does chronic cannabis use permanently alter the brain's response to natural rewards like music? Could this reward-dampening effect extend to other pleasurable activities? What CBD:THC ratio is needed to fully offset the reward-dampening effect?
Common questions
Does cannabis make music sound better?
Did CBD make a difference?
Read the original research
Cannabis Dampens the Effects of Music in Brain Regions Sensitive to Reward and Emotion.
The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 21(1), 21-32
Citation
Freeman, Tom P; Pope, Rebecca A; Wall, Matthew B; Bisby, James A; Luijten, Maartje; Hindocha, Chandni; Mokrysz, Claire; Lawn, Will; Moss, Abigail; Bloomfield, Michael A P; Morgan, Celia J A; Nutt, David J; Curran, H Valerie. (2018). Cannabis Dampens the Effects of Music in Brain Regions Sensitive to Reward and Emotion.. The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 21(1), 21-32. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijnp/pyx082
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