Researchers from SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and McGill University published a paper in the journal Science Advances proposing a unique method for better understanding the interaction between hallucinogenic drugs, people’s brains, and different types of psychedelic experiences.
They did this by using artificial intelligence to look at real-life accounts of psychedelic experiences and compare them to how human brain chemistry engages with drugs on a molecular level.
However, while the researchers’ methods and goals push the envelope forward on understanding how psychedelics can help or harm individuals, the data they use could be unreliable.
Read moreWhat does ketamine do to your brain?
Much of how ketamine works is a mystery, but the picture is slowly coming into focus.
Read moreYale scientists have found that a single dose of psilocybin given to mice induces a rapid and long-lasting increase in connections between pyramidal neurons in the medial frontal cortex, an area of the brain known to be involved in control and decision-making.
Read moreHere’s the latest on how there is a shift in psychiatry toward a new way of thinking about depression, its causes, and therapies.
The profession’s long embrace of the “monoamine hypothesis” — the idea that depression primarily results from abnormal levels of neurotransmitter chemicals in the brain and that drugs can restore the proper balance — is giving way to a more complex understanding and alternative treatments, from ketamine to psychedelics to magnetic stimulation.
Read moreA growing list of athletes are looking to psychedelic substances for healing brain trauma.
Read moreWhat do psychedelics do to the brain? This study looks at whole-brain simulations that hint at the neurobiological mechanisms underlying psychedelic-induced entropy.
Read more