Psychotic symptoms have theoretically been linked to semantic memory impairments in patients with schizophrenia. Little is known of the effects of cannabis, the world's most popular illicit drug, on semantic memory and whether they are linked to the psychotomimetic states elicited by the drug. Thirty-six cannabis users were tested whilst under the influence of cannabis. They were then tested again when not intoxicated and compared with 38 non-drug using controls. Semantic memory was assessed using a semantic priming task with a long and short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) to differentiate automatic and controlled processing. Under the influence of cannabis, users showed increases in both automatic semantic priming and schizotypal symptoms compared with controls. When abstinent, cannabis users exhibited hyper-priming at long SOAs. Cannabis users did not differ from controls in either trait schizotypy or state schizotypy when not intoxicated. Acute cannabis use increases schizotypyal symptoms and may increase automatic semantic priming in recreational users of this drug. When drug-free, cannabis users did not differ from controls in schizotypy but did show hyper-priming at the long SOA. The acute increase in automatic semantic priming may be one factor contributing to the psychotomimetic effects of cannabis.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
5
4%
Other
19
15%
Unknown
26
20%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 35. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 July 2026.
All research outputs
#1,431,863
of 33,073,863 outputs
Outputs from Psychiatry Research
#415
of 7,788 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5,717
of 224,790 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Psychiatry Research
#6
of 31 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 33,073,863 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,788 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 224,790 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 31 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 77% of its contemporaries.
