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Psilocybin generates psychedelic experience by disrupting brain network
Sep. 20, 2024.
2 mins. read.
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Study advances efforts to harness drug's mind-altering power to treat mental illness
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People who consume psilocybin-containing “magic mushrooms” typically undergo a surreal experience in which their sense of space, time and self is distorted.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have now explained how it may work: psilocybin temporarily scrambles the brain’s “default mode network,” a critical network of brain areas involved in introspective thinking, such as daydreaming and remembering.
Therapies
This finding suggests psilocybin-based therapies for mental illnesses such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The study, published July 17 in the journal Nature, creates a road map that other scientists can follow to evaluate the effects of psychoactive drugs on brain function—potentially accelerating drug development efforts for any number of psychiatric illnesses, say the researchers.
Visualizing the impact of psilocybin
In an experiment, the researchers found a way to visualize the impact of psilocybin on individual participants’ neural communication pathways that connect different brain regions and to correlate changes in these networks with subjective experiences.
They found that psilocybin caused profound and widespread—yet not permanent—changes to the brain’s functional networks. It desynchronized the “default mode network,” an interconnected set of brain areas that are ordinarily simultaneously active when the brain is not working on anything in particular.
After falling out of sync, the network re-established itself when the acute effects of the drug wore off, but small differences from pre-psilocybin scans persisted for weeks, making the brain more flexible and potentially more able to come into a healthier state.
Rating feelings of transcendence, connectedness and awe
The brains of people on psilocybin look more similar to each other than to their untripping selves—what people say about losing their sense of self during a trip.
During the experience, participants were asked to rate their feelings of transcendence, connectedness and awe using the validated Mystical Experience Questionnaire. The magnitude of the changes to the functional networks tracked with the intensity of each participant’s subjective experience.
The researchers also said they were able to get very precise data on the effects of the drug in each individual—a step toward precision clinical trials.
Citation: Siegel JS, Subramanian S, Perry D, Kay BP, Gordon EM, Laumann TO, Reneau TR, Metcalf NV, Chacko RV, Gratton C, Horan C, Krimmel SR, Shimony JS, Schweiger JA, Wong DF, Bender DA, Scheidter KM, Whiting FI, Padawer-Curry JA, Shinohara RT, Chen Y, Moser J, Yacoub E, Nelson SM, Vizioli L, Fair DA, Lenze EJ, Carhart-Harris R, Raison CL, Raichle ME, Snyder AZ, Nicol GE, Dosenbach NUF. Psilocybin desynchronizes the human brain. Nature. July 17, 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07624-5 (open-access)
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3 Comments
3 thoughts on “Psilocybin generates psychedelic experience by disrupting brain network”
These methods are enormously powerful. Rapid rewiring away from pathological thinking patterns can often be achieved by just one time treatment.
A recent, phase 3 clinical trial showed wonderful results of MDMA assisted therapy for severe PTSD. It is really sad that we live in systems where the medical industry is incentivized to push against these opportunities. Of course lifetime medication generates more revenue than a single shot treatment but I'm hopeful that soon enough there will be a paradigm shift on the field in general. I have family members working in mental healthcare (in Europe) and the need for this is high and urgent.
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The hyperlink to the clinical trial seems to be broken but here it is:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02565-4
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I am confused: are they creating positive illussions that cure the Mind? Drugs are wonderful in the short run, but I had never screen any one getting better in the long run, never. I know first hand on both sides. In the short run everything is under control and the drugs are magical. After the long run, everything goes to shit.
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