Hemodynamic activity as registered by fMRI scanners is tightly linked to neuronal activity. A standard reading of Nutt’s fMRI data seems to imply that expanding your mind by taking magic mushrooms turns many brain circuits down rather than up. Suddenly, Timothy Leary’s famous admonition to hippies to “turn on, tune in and drop out” acquires a whole new meaning.
The ACC and parts of the mPFC inhibit limbic and other structures. Thus, their downregulation, or reduction in response, would allow the content of the limbic systems that process emotion and perhaps sensory cortices to play a relatively more dominant role. It is not that enhanced hemodynamic, or even neuronal, activity by itself gives rise to perception and thought. After all, epileptic seizures are hypersynchronized discharges that engulf the entire cortex in massive rhythmic activity that renders the patient unconscious. It is the pattern of spiking across heterogeneous populations of neurons that carries the specific information, the messages, that are represented in consciousness.
At this point, this is all pure speculation because the detailed biophysical mechanisms and the effects of psilocybin on different neurons remain to be worked out.
Any such remarkable finding needs to be replicated by other groups before it becomes part of textbook knowledge. Moreover, the discrepancy with the earlier PET experiments needs to be explained. Two major differences are the mode of taking the drug (intravenously versus orally) and the time of measurement (immediately versus an hour later).
What is intriguing is that the regions that show the strongest reduction in activity are among the most heavily interconnected in the brain. They act like traffic circles or hubs that link disparate regions. Thus, the brain on psilocybin becomes more disconnected, more fragmented, which might explain some of the dissociative aspects of acid trips. Yet why this state should cause the mind-expanding effects that are the prime reason these drugs are treasured is utterly unclear. The study once again highlights how elusive our knowledge of the mind-brain hinge remains.
This article was published in print as "This is Your Brain on Drugs."
This article was originally published with the title This Is Your Brain on Drugs.
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey are just finding this out? Only goes to show when politics keep science from being done, it isn't.
I experienced these in my youth and it's quite obvious that the way they worked was breaking down the barriers that limit the brain's concentration and everything comes flowing out at once.
This can be wonderful or frightening depending on basic personality. Fearful, conservatives and paranoid don't do well and shouldn't take these.
If you are a happy and like the new and exploring then these are likely to delight done reasonably.
They have different effects/highs Mushrooms are a mild color trip. Peyote is a hard driving trip in the deepest sense and LSD is about inbetween.
I can easily see these used correctly on the right patients helping get over mental problems but good research needs to be done so those who might be harmed by them don't.
These can help learn how the mind works if nothing else and should be widely studied.
jerryd's 5/2/12 post made some excellent points! Anyone considering a "trip" should do some research, it's worth it! It's been decades, if I recall there are actual directions in "The Psychedelic Experience" written by Timothy Leary Ph.D., Richard Alpert Ph.D. & maybe Ralph Metzner Ph.D. a Jungian psychologist. These are Harvard and Berkley... guys (no dummies). Don't believe everything you read about them. They & other 1960's "revolutionaries" & especially Leary were covertly persecuted by our government. Leary was moved around to prisons to 29 different countries which goes to show you how afraid the U.S. is of us not following orders & the people gaining peaceful democratic power. Thinking for yourselves & getting deprogrammed scares the powers that be as it's about control. This is just my personal opinion, yet shared by countless non-drone experienced others. It's a 3-day experience. 1st know the quality of what your taking have it tested. 2, have safe & proper environment with people who understand the experience who you trust & love - I prefer private nature/outdoors. Talk about what you want from the journey the 1st day, 2nd day take a single dose or even 1/2, day-3 after the trip is over discuss what you experienced from the trip. Have some fresh fruit around for after you start to come down you will likely be in a enlighted state & see that eating dead meat is not appealing if U understand food, are humane & are aware of the environment. Trust me aduro23.blogspo have whole & real fresh fruit & stay hydrated. This experience can be life changing & open new ways of seeing life in quantum reality if 1 takes it not for fun, but for a different view of their lives & the Universe. Yes this is a scientific forum & in my opinion the word "spiritual" is not antithetical to the word science. In my opinion science is proving "some" of the true ancient wisdom that has been lost & forgotten over the centuries which had been born out by ancient text. Remember we don't even know that time is lineal for sure. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates & many other great thinkers, scientists, authors, psychologists... have had this trip by one means or another. Through this experience one can see clearly the relationship between our thoughts, what we say,& how our actions impact our world & others. We have the capacity to change our lives with thought alone & a mindful approach to life. This trip demonstrates in detail how the Universe ticks & our direct relationship. Every action has an equal & opposite reaction. Evolve or be in limbo. aduro23
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"aduro23.blogspo have whole & real fresh fruit..."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAre you selling something?
So, can this be used as a treatment for seizures? Especially, something safer that women with epilepsy can use while pregnant. Also, what is the rate of disassociation and recovery?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Hemodynamic activity as registered by fMRI scanners is tightly linked to neuronal activity."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is more a statement of faith that established scientific fact & even if true does not amount to causation.
"these mind-altering drugs decreased hemodynamic activity"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthese? were they just given psilocybin or was there some other drugs added?
ok great comment but are you telling us to get fresh fruit off aduro23.blogspot? like off the internet? lol how fresh is that going to be by the time its delivered :)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am not so sure that there were a "variety" of reason why these were banned. The experiments then, as now, showed that people became more connected to others and the world at large with use. Which I think was a big contributor to the peace movement of the 1960's. I think the move to make them illegal was simply that the people making money from the wars were terrified of peace breaking out. So instead, connectedness was replaced with being bombarded with stories about evil outsiders planning to destroy the country, from the USSR to Bush's "axis of evil" to the nicely vague threat of terrorists who supposedly are hell-bent on destroying the world just for fun. Just to justify wasting trillions of dollars to keep these guys safely in the 0.01%
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisremember LSD and many others were not illegal until the mid to late 60's and even 70's in some states.
Many very important people used them from the 50's until they became illegal is well known in the early writing on them.