The Effect of Chronic Cannabis Use on Visuomotor and Cognitive Performance

The Canadian legalization of recreational cannabis use in 2018 has increased interest in the substance’s impact on its users. This includes their visuomotor and cognitive abilities which are integral towards safely completing activities of daily living. The objective of this thesis was to determine if there are visuomotor and cognitive performance deficits related to cannabis use frequency. York University students (N~880) completed eight browser-based tasks that assessed their performance. Three tasks were analyzed: the task switching (assesses attention switching), tunnelling (assesses visuomotor acuity), and mirror reversed transformation (assesses goal-directed movement planning) tasks. The task performances of individuals with no prior use (N>=298), infrequent use (between once per 3 months & once per week; N>=71), and frequent use (once per week or more; N>=89) were compared. Our results demonstrated no significant performance deficits, suggesting that the frequency by which cannabis is used does not lead to persisting visuomotor and cognitive deficits.