Study Shows How LSD Interferes With Brain's Signaling (theguardian.com) 63
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.
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Surely if I ever felt the urge to read The Guardian I would make the effort but in all fairness it is not on top of my everyday agenda, one reason being the above article. Secondly, science has been experimenting with different doses of LSD in solicited and unsolicited experiments ever since it was discovered 50 years ago, plenty has been written about it. Lets move on.
And yet we still don't know how it works. We don't know if micro-dosing is real or placebo. We have some evidence that psychedelics can be used to treat diseases like alcoholism but there is still not sufficient evidence for governments to accept that these substances have a medical use. Ditto with their use for PTSD, etc. So, no, I would say more research is needed.
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Micro-dosing was proven to have a testable effect in a double-blind experiment with controls. There was a post about this two days ago. [slashdot.org]
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Micro-dosing was proven to have a testable effect in a double-blind experiment with controls. There was a post about this two days ago. [slashdot.org]
I saw that, but that study wasn't really exploring the microdosing claims we've been seeing recently: things like increased creativity and so on.
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I see monsters.
I think you should lay off the LSD.
THe effect is the same as when (Score:3)
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
Neat! (Score:1, Funny)
Pretty sure I read this a while ago, not sure exactly how long though...
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At least that's how I remember it.
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It was 2 days ago on Slashdot.
Re:Neat! (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Microdosing LSD (Score:3)
Reading that makes microdosing LSD [news.com.au] sound little less crazy than you many might have thought.
Re:Microdosing LSD (Score:5, Interesting)
Microdosing, or regular use of normal doses of LSD, is less innocent then it looks. It can lead to or amplify an heart condition.
Given enough time between doses, the heart has time to recover. Long-term microdosing does sabotage that repair process. Read https://thethirdwave.co/psyche... [thethirdwave.co] for more detailed information.
Also, from personal experience, i found the 'after effect' of LSD lasts for a week or two, increasing good mood. I'm not talking about the 'next day' hangover when you're still a bit tired from the experience, but the following days where the 'anti-depressant' effect of the drug becomes more obvious.
Personally, for me that's two reasons not to microdose. I rather have the full trip, than building immunity for the hallucinogen effect. Also being overweight already i rather avoid a heart condition. I didn't trip at all for over 2 decades. Nowadays i might pop 2 trips in a single month, alternated by months of not using. But i will avoid experimenting with microdosing.
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Microdosing, or regular use of normal doses of LSD, is less innocent then it looks. It can lead to or amplify an heart condition.
Given enough time between doses, the heart has time to recover. Long-term microdosing does sabotage that repair process. Read https://thethirdwave.co/psyche [thethirdwave.co]... [thethirdwave.co] for more detailed information.
The risks of LSD in regards to heart damage, even at normal dose, is still unknown. MDMA and Fen Phen do appear to carry risks for heart disease. The link that you provided shows that the LSD binds to the same receptors that cause heart issues with MDMA and Fen Phen usage. However even at a high dose of LSD, it's going to be incredibly smaller than the amount of MDMA or Fen Phen.
I'm not talking about the 'next day' hangover when you're still a bit tired from the experience,
It's been well over 30 years since I've tripped, but I always found that taking Valium once I came down always helped with being
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amplify an heart condition.
Art isn't a "condition," it is just part of life. You have serious problems.
Timothy Leary’s dead (Score:3)
Oh no, he’s outside... looking in.
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Learn how to operate your brain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
"The first thing to do is to overwhelm your focused mind."
"This is the state of the brain when it is ready to be reformed, that is, to be reprogrammed."
But of course, the most important thing is to be in control of the screens you look at.
Another study proving the obvious (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Window pane (Score:1)
Did I ever tell you guys any of my acid stories? I forget. They're good stories, though.
By the way, is anybody holding?
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Well that's the point, man. I've opened up those doors of perception, tore then right off the fucking hinges in fact, so I can see what is not obvious to the average Slashdotter. I can see for miles and miles.
And by the way, did you ever look at your nostrils? I mean really look at your nostrils? Feed your head.
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Ahh yes. The Window Pane. Back in the day, I took a whole without planning my day.
Was forced to drive my car. I found myself driving in bouncy Max Fleischer cartoon world.
I think that I went someplace to sit it out. I don't remember that part.
DUPE (Score:4, Funny)
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When was that? Genuinely interested.
Re: whoda thunk it? (Score:1)
My brained is screwed after reading this.
Re:whoda thunk it? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.)
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>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?
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Gt (Score:1)
Or the brain modulates its emotion to produce other emotions and LSD stops that.
MKULTRA (Score:4)
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.
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Researchers do consider things like that. In a proper study there shouldn't have been anyone else in the room with him at all.
The CIA may not be the best research institution.
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Researchers do consider things like that. In a proper study there shouldn't have been anyone else in the room with him at all.
The CIA may not be the best research institution.
Well it was Stanford University, using the best researchers they had at the time. They weren't in the room all the time, they just came in occasionally to ask some questions and take some health readings. The CIA is actually still involved in projects there, although they are more open about it now. They even offer a CIA internship program. Christine Blasey Ford was involved in running that program, which makes since considering her father was involved in MKULTRA.
Anyway, no one knew for years that the CIA h
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Psychology has recently undergone a bit of a rude awakening, realizing that study design, placebo effect, biased sampling, replicability, etc. are somewhat important.
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Funny how researchers never consider things like that.
Researchers cannot consider everything.
But they know about statistics. And they will notice one person with a score completely off the chart, and will either discard it, or try to find out why that guy is different. And it includes checking for things like fraud and other external factors.
In some cases they call in stage magicians, who are experts at these kinds of things.
Stop the presses! Breaking news! (Score:2)
I mean, who would have thought that it lowered the filter... other than EVERY ONE WHO TOOK IT OR WROTE ABOUT IT in the sixties and seventies.
Results are old news, even if it's a new test (Score:2)
placebo domingo (Score:2)
How could someone take an LSD placebo and be fooled into thinking it did something?
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If we're not talking high dosage, easily enough, the same way that placebos work when they do - expectations of the user.
Next, go look up "contact high".
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But if they were not dosing to the tipping point of deep synesthesia, time dilution, and the loss of self, what's the point?
Nobody babysitting a room of people tripping is going to spontaneously start seeing trails and color auras.
They might grin and giggle a little bit, but that's it.
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You'd be surprised. Being asked if things are more significant than normal or other similar questions can make you wonder because you don't normally think about the world that way.
There have been some interesting studies on the LSD placebos:
http://www.gwern.net/docs/psyc... [gwern.net]
http://www.gwern.net/docs/psyc... [gwern.net]
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Good, except when it isn't. Then it's terrible.