What happens in your brain when you’re high/stoned?
In: Biology
THC (tetrahydrocannabidiol – a phytocannabinoid or plant-based cannabinoid) interacts with and activates the cannabinoid receptors in your brain (CB1 receptors). Activating these receptors causes a lot of downstream molecular shit but most relevant to your question is what’s called depolarization (ie activation)-induced suppression of inhibition. It’s a neat type of retrograde signaling where if cell A is talking to cell B through typical neuronal signaling, cell B gets the unique opportunity to signal back to A. In our system as is, cell A is telling B to shut the fuck up but B releases endocannabinoids to tell A like, please don’t kill my vibe and this causes A to stop being such a downer (ie the inhibition from A is suppressed). A grossly anthropomorphized example but essentially THC is just hijacking that system artificially and letting the neurons chatter more 🙂
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