Our brain performance decreases with age, like any other organ in the human body. Research performed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that cannabis can actually improve mental performance. You can find the study here.
Scientists treated elderly mice with prolonged low-doses of cannabis over a period of 4 weeks, finding that the mice regressed to the mental state of a two-month old mouse.
“The treatment completely reversed the loss of performance in the old animals,” reported Prof. Andreas Zimmer from the Institute of Molecular Psychiatry at the University of Bonn and member of the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation.
The implications for treating and preventing dementia are enormous. During the experiment scientists made sure to administer doses of cannabis (with THC) that were low enough that the animals experienced no intoxicating or mind-altering effects.
The next step will be getting approval for cannabis trials on humans for the specific purpose of measuring cognitive decline vs improvement in long-term treatment.
sources: ScientificAmerican, EurekAlert