No differences in inhibitory control or prefrontal activation during a cannabis cue stop-signal task across CUDIT-R-defined CUD-risk groups

Pickering, CR, Lorenzetti, V, Jones, A ORCID: 0000-0001-5951-889X, Guest, M, Christiansen, P and Roberts, CA (2026) No differences in inhibitory control or prefrontal activation during a cannabis cue stop-signal task across CUDIT-R-defined CUD-risk groups. Psychopharmacology. ISSN 0033-3158

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Abstract

Rationale
Cannabis use continues to increase globally, with a growing proportion of users exhibiting problematic patterns of use. Although neural differences in reward and inhibitory control systems are commonly reported in individuals who use cannabis relative to individuals not reporting cannabis use, findings using behavioural tasks are inconsistent. This is possibly due to lack of differentiation between regular and more problematic patterns of use.

Objectives
This study investigated whether inhibitory control performance and associated prefrontal and orbitofrontal activation differed across CUDIT-R-stratified levels of CUD risk.

Methods
Participants (N = 81) were divided into three groups based on CUDIT-R scores: 30 high-CUD-risk individuals who use cannabis (≥ 12), 21 low-CUD-risk individuals who use cannabis (< 8), and 30 individuals not reporting cannabis use. Individuals with a current substance use disorder, including cannabis use disorder, were excluded from participation. All completed a cannabis-cue specific Stop-Signal Task (SST) while functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure oxygenated (oxyHb) and deoxygenated haemoglobin (deoxyHb) concentrations in the prefrontal cortices. Behavioural performance and neural activation were compared across groups.

Results
No significant behavioural or neural differences were found between the groups.

Conclusions
The study found no evidence of impaired inhibitory control or differential prefrontal activation across CUDIT-R-stratified levels of CUD risk. The results suggest incorporating further diagnostic stratification, multimodal imaging, and ecologically valid methods in future research to better characterise cannabis-related neural adaptations and inform clinical practice.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	11 Medical and Health Sciences; 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences; Psychiatry; 5202 Biological psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Divisions:	Psychology (from Sep 2019)
Publisher:	Springer
Date of acceptance:	28 May 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	3 June 2026
Date Deposited:	03 Jun 2026 13:59
Last Modified:	03 Jun 2026 13:59
DOI or ID number:	10.1007/s00213-026-07099-4
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28723

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