Cannabis, HIV and Mental Processing Systems

Inclusion criteria

• Participants must be 18-70 years old.
• PLWH must have documented HIV infection for approximately 1 year, be on a cART regimen for approximately ≥3 months, and be virally well-controlled (< 200 copies/mL).
• HIV- controls must have confirmed HIV- serostatus.
• Participants must complete at least 9 years of education.
• Participants must be able to provide informed consent.
• Female participants must have a negative pregnancy test or written documentation of tubal ligation, hysterectomy, post-menopausal status, etc. and cannot be breastfeeding.
• Participants should have no contraindications to an MRI scan.
• Participants should be willing to have cannabis use history confirmed via clinical interview and urine analysis .
• All inclusion criteria at PI discretion.

Exclusion criteria

• History of neurological disorder (e.g., stroke, head injury with loss of consciousness for >5 minutes, developmental learning disability, etc.).
• Uncontrolled major affective disorder; history of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Major depression controlled with no hospitalizations or suicidal ideation in the past year is allowed.
• Current substance use disorder (SUD) as defined by DSM-5 criteria besides cannabis use disorder (CUD) (though a past SUD > 1 year before the time of study enrolment will be allowed).
• currently prescribed anti-coagulants (only exclusionary if participant will engage in optional LP).
• an allergy to lidocaine or similar anesthetic (only exclusionary if participant will engage in optional LP).
• a history of a bleeding disorder (only exclusionary if participant will engage in optional LP).
• claustrophobia or a pacemaker that would prevent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning.
• all exclusion criteria at PI discretion.