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Breakthrough Study Reveals How LSD Dissolves a Person's Sense of Self (newatlas.com)
New submitter future guy shares a report from New Atlas: A fascinating study led by scientists at the University of Zurich has uncovered key insights into the mechanisms behind how our brain generates our sense of self. The researchers administered lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to several participants in order to home in on where in the brain our sense of self is activated and what happens when a powerful psychedelic drug interferes with that process. The study administered 24 subjects either LSD, LSD in combination with ketanserin, or a placebo. Ketanserin is a compound that is known to inhibit many of the effects of LSD by blocking the serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2A receptor). Each subject lay in an MRI scanner while undergoing a series of social interaction simulations with a virtual avatar. As well as the brain imaging, the subjects' eye movements were monitored to track when they were or were not following the gaze of the virtual avatar.
The study demonstrated LSD-altered brain activity in several regions previously identified as fundamental for developing coherent self-representation during social interaction, including the posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex and the angular gyrus. Most importantly though was the observation that ketanserin normalized the effects of LSD to the point where the group influenced by ketanserin and LSD displayed similar results to those under the effect of the placebo. These results strongly suggest that the 5-HT2A receptor plays a fundamental role in the development of self-awareness, and differentiation between the self and others. The value of this research is two-fold. As well as simply increasing our knowledge of how the brain functions under the influence of psychedelic drugs, it is suggested that different psychiatric conditions could be treated by manipulating the 5-HT2A receptor pathways. The study has been published in the journal JNeurosci.
The study demonstrated LSD-altered brain activity in several regions previously identified as fundamental for developing coherent self-representation during social interaction, including the posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex and the angular gyrus. Most importantly though was the observation that ketanserin normalized the effects of LSD to the point where the group influenced by ketanserin and LSD displayed similar results to those under the effect of the placebo. These results strongly suggest that the 5-HT2A receptor plays a fundamental role in the development of self-awareness, and differentiation between the self and others. The value of this research is two-fold. As well as simply increasing our knowledge of how the brain functions under the influence of psychedelic drugs, it is suggested that different psychiatric conditions could be treated by manipulating the 5-HT2A receptor pathways. The study has been published in the journal JNeurosci.
When the MRI machine looks like its breathing, some find it funny, others panic.
I can't imagine dropping acid and then just lying in an MRI scanner.
Only your body has to remain there.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
One of the remaining legacies of colonialism is the suppression of psychedelics. They were used in religious rituals for thousands of years in the Americas, and as such a sacrement, their use is in fact a constitutionally protected right.
-The art of programming is the pursuit of absolute simplicity.
These things have become so ingrained in the moral consciousness of many cultures that they are rarely questioned any more. It's a feature of many religions that direct pleasure is a vice while suffering is a virtue. So when you're exhausted and harm yourself the endorphins your body releases on its own are good, they please God - you a bit closer to heaven. But when you take drugs that interact with the same receptors in your brain it's sin and saddens or angers God - you get a bit closer to hell. But it's not just Christianity as most religions condemn drugs use except when it's something cultural. For example while Islam doesn't look favourably at alcohol consumption or narcotics in general, kath usage in certain parts of the Arabic world is socially accepted and very common. But back to Christianity again, the Church also has several problems with pleasure from sexual intercourse and masturbation, something that is pretty natural from what we know about animals. And in that case they argue that we must resist these natural things and distract ourselves by doing other things.
I think historically the most likely problem with 'easy pleasure' is that those people are usually not productive workers for their community and or rulers, because it's been certainly more accepted throughout history for the rich and powerful to indulge in their expensive vices.