Brain scan studies show that
hallucinogens change consciousness by breaking brain barriers
Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, February 24 (Reporter Feng Weidong) A brain scan study recently published in the "Neuroimaging" magazine showed that hallucinogens can change consciousness by freeing the brain from natural obstacles, making it impossible to Interacting neurons conduct abnormal conversations.
The brain is composed of 86 billion neurons, which communicate with each other through a network of connections.
Neuroscientists have created a connection map that can roughly outline which brain regions in ordinary people tend to be more or less connected to each other.
The lead author of the new study and a doctoral student in clinical sciences at the University of Cambridge, UK, said: “If you think of brain structure as a road, then brain function is traffic.” In other words, this infrastructure limits which brain areas Can exchange information.
Hallucinogens did not change the layout of the road, but they did change the traffic conditions.
To figure this out, the research team recruited 20 healthy volunteers who had used hallucinogens.
Each volunteer underwent two functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, two weeks apart.
Before the first scan, the volunteers were given saline as a placebo; before the second scan, the volunteers were given 75 micrograms of hallucinogens dissolved in saline.
The volunteers scan their brains while closing their eyes and resting.
Subsequently, the volunteers made a subjective assessment of their own experience.
The scan results revealed profound changes in the way the brain communicates.
Hallucinogens temporarily reorganize the brain's traffic, triggering communication between normally non-interactive areas.
The brain signal is not driving along an old highway, but a circuitous path to the far end of the brain.
Rupi claims that hallucinogens change the parts of the brain that communicate with each other.
Specifically, changes in traffic temporarily changed the way the brain absorbs and classifies information from the outside world.
Throughout the psychedelic experience, the effects of drugs on brain function are not constant.
These new ways of communication are related to well-being, complex images, and phenomena known as self-dissolution or loss of self.
Researchers said that under the influence of hallucinogens, the brain can freely explore various ways of functional connection, which are beyond the way determined by anatomy, resulting in unusual consciousness and experience during hallucinations.
Understanding exactly how hallucinogens affect brain function may help develop better treatments.