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Study Shows How LSD Interferes With Brain's Signaling (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A group of volunteers who took a trip in the name of science have helped researchers uncover how LSD messes with activity in the brain to induce an altered state of consciousness. Brain scans of individuals high on the drug revealed that the chemical allows parts of the cortex to become flooded with signals that are normally filtered out to prevent information overload. The drug allowed more information to flow from the thalamus, a kind of neural gatekeeper, to a region called the posterior cingulate cortex, and it stemmed the flow of information to another part known as the temporal cortex. This disruption in communication may underpin some of the wacky effects reported by LSD users, from feelings of bliss and being at one with the universe to hallucinations and what scientists in the field refer to as "ego dissolution," where one's sense of self disintegrates.
For the study, the researchers invited 25 healthy participants into the lab to be scanned under the influence of LSD and, on another occasion, after taking a placebo. They were shown around the scanner beforehand to ensure they felt comfortable going inside when the drug took hold. Had the machine suddenly taken on a threatening demeanor, the scans might not have come out so well. The scientists wanted to test a hypothesis first put forward more than a decade ago. It states LSD causes the thalamus to stop filtering information it relays to other parts of the brain. It is the breakdown of this filter that gives rise to the weird effects the drug induces, or so the thinking goes. Scans of the volunteers' brains suggested there may be some truth to the hypothesis. On LSD, the thalamus let more information through to some parts of the brain and suppressed information bound for others. "What we found is that the model is mostly true, but how information is distributed to the cortex under LSD is much more specific than it predicts," a researcher said. The latest research is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
For the study, the researchers invited 25 healthy participants into the lab to be scanned under the influence of LSD and, on another occasion, after taking a placebo. They were shown around the scanner beforehand to ensure they felt comfortable going inside when the drug took hold. Had the machine suddenly taken on a threatening demeanor, the scans might not have come out so well. The scientists wanted to test a hypothesis first put forward more than a decade ago. It states LSD causes the thalamus to stop filtering information it relays to other parts of the brain. It is the breakdown of this filter that gives rise to the weird effects the drug induces, or so the thinking goes. Scans of the volunteers' brains suggested there may be some truth to the hypothesis. On LSD, the thalamus let more information through to some parts of the brain and suppressed information bound for others. "What we found is that the model is mostly true, but how information is distributed to the cortex under LSD is much more specific than it predicts," a researcher said. The latest research is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Reading that makes microdosing LSD sound little less crazy than you many might have thought.
Oh no, he’s outside... looking in.
#DeleteChrome
Ask anyone who has used LSD about the effects and one thing that will come startlingly clear no matter the reaction (good or bad): LSD breaks down mental barriers, at least temporarily. Whatever topic your brain moves towards you aren't going to easily dismiss it. Sucks that prohibition means it took 75 years to actually scientifically figure this out.
I'm having flashbacks to the last time you posted this story!! ðYðY
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I go past 2GB of data and verizon throttles me down to 2G edge speed. t..i..m..e.....d..i...a....l....a......t........e........s
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I think it's from the 60's.
At least that's how I remember it.
After you screw-up your brain, you cannot possibly use your brain to accurately assess anything.
It's not a permanent effect, so you could accurately assess the results after the trip. If it prevents things you've been suppressing (which the experiment results point to be being true and done by the thalamus) you could easily fix that eating disorder/social anxiety/depression/self sabotage/or whatever other problem you have that you have been hiding from yourself.
I've never tried LSD myself, but I can see why some people who have problems might find benefit in it. (I'm too much of a geek and don't know how to get it, and I like my life enough not to mess with it.)
Not a dupe. Two experiments, two reports, different techniques. One a color blob time perceprtion test and the other a fMRI scanner tracing what happens inside the brain.
Trying to become famous by taking photos. Visit my homepage please.
Ken Kesey described his experiences on LSD when he volunteered from the CIA's MKULTRA experiments. He pranked the researchers through the whole thing. Of course, one of the evaluations was to check the subjects' perception of time. Of course his sense of time was wasted (they used pretty high doses), but Kesey noted that the idiot checking wore his wrist watch into the room. So Kesey just checked the second hand on the guy's watch, and was able to tell him how much time had passed to the second.
Funny how researchers never consider things like that.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
>The dumbest thing any human being can possibly do is to mess with the proper operation of their own brain for recreational purposes.
Which I assume is why you avoid alcohol, tobacco, aspirin, coffee, and the many other mind-altering drugs our spociety approves of as well, right?
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.