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Mostly_Harmless
wyrd bið ful aræd



Registered: 05/12/09
Posts: 5,043
Loc: Perfidious Albion
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Cannabis may enhance night vision 3
#23793590 - 11/02/16 02:07 AM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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https://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2016/oct/27/cannabis-many-enhance-night-vision
Quote:
Thursday 27 October
New research shows that the drug makes cells in the retina more sensitive to light
 Marijuana plants at the Ganja Farms marijuana store in Bogota, Colombia.
25 years ago, pharmacologist M. E. West of the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, noted that local fisherman who smoke cannabis or drink rum made with the leaves and stems of the plant had “an uncanny ability to see in the dark,” which enabled them to navigate their boats through coral reefs. “It was impossible to believe that anyone could navigate a boat without compass and without light in such treacherous surroundings,” he wrote after accompanying the crew of a fishing boat one dark night, “[but] I was then convinced that the man who had taken the rum extract of cannabis had far better night vision than I had, and that a subjective effect was not responsible.”
Some of these crew members told West that Moroccan fishermen and mountain dwellers experience a similar improvement after smoking hashish, and in 2002, another research team travelled to the Rif mountains in Morocco to investigate further. They gave a synthetic cannabinoid to one volunteer, and hashish to three more, then used a newly developed piece of kit to measure the sensitivity of their night vision before and after. Confirming West’s earlier report, they found that cannabis improved night vision in all three of their test subjects.
Now, another study provides hard evidence for the claim, revealing a cellular mechanism by which cannabis might improve night vision. The findings, published recently in the open access journal eLife, could eventually be applied to the treatment patients with degenerative eye diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa.
West had suggested that cannabis might improve vision by acting on the eye muscles to dilate the pupils, so that more light falls on the retina, but other experiments ruled this out by showing that marijuana constricts the pupils. It’s also possible that the drug can influence activity in the visual cortex at the back of the brain, but the CB1 receptor protein, which binds the psychoactive ingredient of cannabis, is found at far higher levels in the eye than in the visual cortex, suggesting that any effects the drug has on vision are likely due to its actions on retinal cells.
Lois Miraucourt of the Montreal Neurological Institute and his colleagues looked not to stoned fishermen, but to tadpoles of the African clawed toad, Xenopus laevis, which are transparent and, therefore, amenable to all sorts of experiments that cannot be performed in humans or other lab animals.
In one set of experiments, they applied a synthetic cannabinoid to eye tissue preparations from the tadpoles, and used microelectrodes to measure how retinal ganglion cells, whose fibres form the optic nerve, respond to light. The researchers found that this made the cells more sensitive, increasing the rate at which they fired to both bright and dim light stimuli. Closer investigation revealed that this occurred due to inhibition of a protein called NKCC1, via its actions on the CB1 receptor.
NKCC1 is a co-transporter protein that normally shuttles sodium, potassium, and chloride ions in and out of cells, and their concentrations determine the electrical properties of nerve cells. Overall, these experiments show that cannabinoids reduce the concentration of chloride ions inside the retinal ganglion cells, making them more excitable and more sensitive to light.
Miraucourt and his colleagues then carried out another set of experiments to determine if the cellular responses they observed could contribute to vision. Tadpoles have a natural tendency to avoid dark moving dots, and the researchers exploited this by putting some tadpoles into a Petri dish, showing them dark dots under various lighting conditions, while using specially designed video-tracking software to track the movements of the tadpoles and the dots, and to measure the tadpoles’ avoidance responses.
Under normal lighting conditions, they observed no differences between tadpoles treated with a synthetic cannabinoid and untreated ones. In the dark, however, tadpoles given the cannabinoid avoided significantly more dots than untreated ones, which only responded to the dots as if by chance. Thus, the researchers conclude that the enhanced cellular responses observed in their first set of experiments improved the tadpoles’ sensitivity to contrast under low-light conditions.
Whether the findings are applicable to humans remains to be seen but, if so, they could pave the way to treatments for diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and glaucoma, which cause blindness by killing off cells in the retina. Cannabinoids are known to have a neuroprotective effect on retinal cells, so treatments based on the drug may, in theory, not only improve vision for patients with deteriorating eyesight, but also slow down the progression of such diseases. References
Miraucourt, L. S., et al. (2016). Endocannabinoid signaling enhances visual responses through modulation of intracellular chloride levels in retinal ganglion cells. eLife, 5: e15932. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.15932 [Full text]
Russo, E. B., et al. (2004). Cannabis improves night vision: a case study of dark adaptometry and scotopic sensitivity in kif smokers of the Rif mountains of northern Morocco. J. Ethnopharmacol., 93: 99–104 [PDF]
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tealeaf
Just Touch It



Registered: 09/21/06
Posts: 2,907
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I know that when I get high and go outside at night that everything is blurry and colors and shadows are enhance, would definitely NOT say my vision is increased.
Also, stay outside in the dark long enough and you think you have night vision once your eyes adjust. Personally, I doubt they smoked or drank to enhance their vision and drank/smoked to simply chill out since they were working.......my $.02
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Konyap

Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 33,945
Loc: Planet Piss
Last seen: 4 years, 2 months
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Re: Cannabis may enhance night vision [Re: tealeaf]
#23794197 - 11/02/16 10:39 AM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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psychedelics increase my night vision because the images ingrain themselves onto my retina
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Super Squid
Extra-Dimensional



Registered: 01/06/13
Posts: 6
Loc: Lakeland, Florida
Last seen: 4 years, 16 days
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Re: Cannabis may enhance night vision [Re: tealeaf]
#23796056 - 11/02/16 09:58 PM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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hahahahaha. yeah i agree with you on this one but the science make sense. hope it develops into a treatment for various ailments.
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musiclover420
psychonaut



Registered: 11/06/12
Posts: 19,563
Loc: PNW
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Re: Cannabis may enhance night vision [Re: Super Squid]
#23796157 - 11/02/16 10:36 PM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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I feel like anything that dilates you pupils could theoretically help at the right dose.
-------------------- Don't worry about me, I've got all that I need. And I'm singing my song to the sky You know how it feels, With the breeze of the sun in your eyes. Not minding that time's passing by I've got all and more, My smile, just as before. Is all that I carry with me I talk to myself, I need nobody else. I'm lost and I'm mine, yes I'm free
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pineninja
Dream Weaver



Registered: 08/17/14
Posts: 12,468
Loc: South
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Re: Cannabis may enhance night vision [Re: musiclover420]
#23796207 - 11/02/16 10:51 PM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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Absolutely agree. By artificially opening the pupil wider you are inevitably going to let more light in.......could be a bit of a double edge sword though....
-------------------- Just a fool on the hill.
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Blabble40
Scorpio

Registered: 11/11/14
Posts: 1,182
Last seen: 1 year, 29 days
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Re: Cannabis may enhance night vision [Re: pineninja]
#23796621 - 11/03/16 03:12 AM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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I heard acid might sort of be able to enhance night vision. I wonder how the slight visuals marijuana causes affects this.
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musiclover420
psychonaut



Registered: 11/06/12
Posts: 19,563
Loc: PNW
Last seen: 2 years, 5 months
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Re: Cannabis may enhance night vision [Re: Blabble40]
#23796624 - 11/03/16 03:15 AM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Blabble40 said: I heard acid might sort of be able to enhance night vision. I wonder how the slight visuals marijuana causes affects this.
LSA definitely does, I have walked/ biked home a few times after shows on it and the dark was lit up with a friendly light aura of sorts.
-------------------- Don't worry about me, I've got all that I need. And I'm singing my song to the sky You know how it feels, With the breeze of the sun in your eyes. Not minding that time's passing by I've got all and more, My smile, just as before. Is all that I carry with me I talk to myself, I need nobody else. I'm lost and I'm mine, yes I'm free
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h0ldthedoor
HODOR



Registered: 06/25/16
Posts: 510
Loc: North of The Wall
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Re: Cannabis may enhance night vision [Re: musiclover420]
#23799824 - 11/04/16 06:31 AM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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Only had cannabis-infused alcohol a few times and apparently there was no memorable difference. However, after smoking it does seem easier to find my way to bed.
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Always keep your foes confused. If they are never certain who you are or what you want, they cannot know what you are like to do next. Sometimes the best way to baffle them is to make moves that have no purpose, or even seem to work against you. – Petyr Baelish
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PumpJackTeX
livin life



Registered: 05/26/08
Posts: 3,951
Loc: California
Last seen: 10 months, 30 days
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Re: Cannabis may enhance night vision [Re: h0ldthedoor]
#23800559 - 11/04/16 12:33 PM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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Acid turns the night into day.
-------------------- Life. 2008 Ascension Energy | UFOs | 2021
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CLIT
Stranger
Registered: 01/23/12
Posts: 2,758
Last seen: 1 year, 11 days
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Re: Cannabis may enhance night vision [Re: PumpJackTeX]
#23805355 - 11/06/16 03:24 AM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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I hope CBD oils would be better since I don't like marijuana as my "get high" source. I would assume the cannabis being referred to is also the one touted as a glaucoma remedy, which may explain it enhancing something relating to "vision".
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Connoisseur

Registered: 05/13/11
Posts: 34,686
Last seen: 5 years, 2 months
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anything that dilates your eyes enhances night vision
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durian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant



Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 16,693
Loc: Raccoon City
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Re: Cannabis may enhance night vision [Re: Connoisseur]
#23823705 - 11/11/16 05:42 PM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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We keep discovering these same plants, which have followed mankind, since the invention of fire, the wheel, and pet dog.
In news flashes, they keep finding that these herbal remedies and common foodstuffs, do exactly what they were always known to do, from millennia of trial-and-error.
So long as there is a magical piece of paper, framed on the wall, with a shiny seal, and an elder, in a ceremonial, white outfit, it can't possibly be superstitious.
But, all the people, who came before you, weren't doing it right.

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