A better understanding of how this natural system works could help scientists develop drugs that harness the medically beneficial effects of marijuana. Just 13 years ago, scientists discovered that throughout the brain and central nervous system, there are receptors, or docking stations, that allow THC to stick to brain cells. Four years later, researchers found that the body makes its own marijuana-like molecules, called cannabinoids. There are two known so far. These molecules act as neurotransmitters, sending messages throughout the brain and central nervous system.
New research helps unravel part of the mystery.
Ms. Wilson's work shows how the brain's cannabinoids may play a key role in memory. Ms. Wilson studied neurons in the part of the brain called the hippocampus, the area thought to be responsible for memory. What Ms. Wilson and her adviser, Roger Nicoll, found is that cannabinoids in the hippocampus seem to allow neurons to talk back to each other. Communication between neurons in the brain had long been thought to be one-way. This is what I'm telling you,' and that neuron talks back to it.