Ever wondered how our body fights stress? Researchers, including one of Indian-origin, have found that during stress, our brain releases its own cannabinoid molecules to calm us down, activating the same brain receptors as THC derived from cannabis plants. But the brain activity patterns and neural circuits that are regulated by these brain-derived cannabinoid molecules were not well known.

A team from the Northwestern University in the US, in a mice study, discovered that a key emotional brain centre, the amygdala, releases endogenous (the body’s own) cannabinoid molecules under stress, and these molecules dampen the incoming stress alarm from the hippocampus -- a memory and emotion centre in the brain.