#lsd — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #lsd, aggregated by home.social.
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Last night I watched a video on the tube called, “Remove hidden past-life implants blocking your spiritual sight,” while high on #LSD and the statue of a yogi on the image for the video opened it’s eyes, an evil type of deity, with thick, dark black eyeliner, light blue eyes. Snakes and entwined bodies emanated from the blue image. I also watched an 888 spiritual video, and the lotus flower spinned out, gold, alive. I had little trouble managing my anxiety. I ‘ve been high before, know the rules: no cleaning or inspecting gross dirty things, ABSOLUTELY NO #CLEANING, NO skin #PICKING, NO BUGS (No outside in August) NO EXAMINATION of troublesome ideas, stay inside, turn down the volume, it’s normal to feel nervous. Don’t eat any #meat.
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Last night I watched a video on the tube called, “Remove hidden past-life implants blocking your spiritual sight,” while high on #LSD and the statue of a yogi on the image for the video opened it’s eyes, an evil type of deity, with thick, dark black eyeliner, light blue eyes. Snakes and entwined bodies emanated from the blue image. I also watched an 888 spiritual video, and the lotus flower spinned out, gold, alive. I had little trouble managing my anxiety. I ‘ve been high before, know the rules: no cleaning or inspecting gross dirty things, ABSOLUTELY NO #CLEANING, NO skin #PICKING, NO BUGS (No outside in August) NO EXAMINATION of troublesome ideas, stay inside, turn down the volume, it’s normal to feel nervous. Don’t eat any #meat.
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[drugs] what does LSD feel like?
https://piefed.blahaj.zone/c/nostupidquestions/p/918051/drugs-what-does-lsd-feel-like
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[drugs] what does LSD feel like?
https://piefed.blahaj.zone/c/nostupidquestions/p/918051/drugs-what-does-lsd-feel-like
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[drugs] what does LSD feel like?
https://piefed.blahaj.zone/c/nostupidquestions/p/918051/drugs-what-does-lsd-feel-like
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Encore une superbe série de podcasts de "La Série Documentaire", consacrée aux oiseaux et à celles et ceux que ces fantastiques animaux fascinent (dont je fait partie).
je ne peux m’empêcher de noter l’incroyable qualité du
mixage des podcasts de LSD. C’est du grand art, tout en nuance.
rss-rf.aerion.me/rss/53436139-8e54-4269-b74c-0decea7d8447
www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/serie-lsd-la-vie-revee-des-oiseaux
#LSD #RadioFrance #Ornithologie -
Encore une superbe série de podcasts de "La Série Documentaire", consacrée aux oiseaux et à celles et ceux que ces fantastiques animaux fascinent (dont je fait partie).
je ne peux m’empêcher de noter l’incroyable qualité du
mixage des podcasts de LSD. C’est du grand art, tout en nuance.
rss-rf.aerion.me/rss/53436139-8e54-4269-b74c-0decea7d8447
www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/serie-lsd-la-vie-revee-des-oiseaux
#LSD #RadioFrance #Ornithologie -
Encore une superbe série de podcasts de "La Série Documentaire", consacrée aux oiseaux et à celles et ceux que ces fantastiques animaux fascinent (dont je fait partie).
je ne peux m’empêcher de noter l’incroyable qualité du
mixage des podcasts de LSD. C’est du grand art, tout en nuance.
rss-rf.aerion.me/rss/53436139-8e54-4269-b74c-0decea7d8447
www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/serie-lsd-la-vie-revee-des-oiseaux
#LSD #RadioFrance #Ornithologie -
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https://www.europesays.com/uk/1134568/ Major VA study to examine effectiveness of psilocybin on depression, PTSD #CirculatedAirForceTimes #CirculatedArmyTimes #CirculatedMarineCorpsTimes #CirculatedMilitaryTimes #CirculatedNavyTimes #DepartmentOfHealthAndHumanServices #DepartmentOfVeteransAffairs #FoodAndDrugAdministration #Health #LSD #MagicMushrooms #MajorDepressiveDisorder #MDMA #MedicalResearch #MentalHealth #MilitaryTimes #Molly #PsychedelicResearch #PTSD #UK #UnitedKingdom #Veterans
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https://www.europesays.com/ie/624170/ Major VA study to examine effectiveness of psilocybin on depression, PTSD #CirculatedAirForceTimes #CirculatedArmyTimes #CirculatedMarineCorpsTimes #CirculatedMilitaryTimes #CirculatedNavyTimes #DepartmentOfHealthAndHumanServices #DepartmentOfVeteransAffairs #Éire #FoodAndDrugAdministration #Health #IE #Ireland #lsd #MagicMushrooms #MajorDepressiveDisorder #mdma #MedicalResearch #MentalHealth #MentalHealth #MilitaryTimes #molly #PsychedelicResearch #PTSD #veterans
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https://www.europesays.com/it/618673/ Dall’LSD una possibile immunoterapia contro il tumore del colon, senza allucinazioni #5HT2A #AntiPD1 #CarcinomaColorettale #CD8+Linfociti #cell #CXCL10 #Health #IHCH8110 #immunoterapia #Interleuchina18 #IT #Italia #Italy #LSD #Salute
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https://www.europesays.com/uk/1127165/ The defining song of the 1960s was brought on by LSD and Jimmy Page #1960s #Donovan #Entertainment #JimiHendrix #JimmyPage #LedZeppelin #LSD #music #UK #UnitedKingdom
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Excellente série de podcasts sur les mondes et les peuples de la fantasy, dans le cadre de "La Série Documentaire"
rss-rf.aerion.me/rss/75a0e1b8-78ca-4d75-825d-a3bc89118c08
ou
www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/serie-les-mondes-et-les-peuples-de-la-fantasy
#Fantasy #LSD #Tolkien -
Excellente série de podcasts sur les mondes et les peuples de la fantasy, dans le cadre de "La Série Documentaire"
rss-rf.aerion.me/rss/75a0e1b8-78ca-4d75-825d-a3bc89118c08
ou
www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/serie-les-mondes-et-les-peuples-de-la-fantasy
#Fantasy #LSD #Tolkien -
Excellente série de podcasts sur les mondes et les peuples de la fantasy, dans le cadre de "La Série Documentaire"
rss-rf.aerion.me/rss/75a0e1b8-78ca-4d75-825d-a3bc89118c08
ou
www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/serie-les-mondes-et-les-peuples-de-la-fantasy
#Fantasy #LSD #Tolkien -
DATE: July 30, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Neuroscientists just upended a core assumption about how psychedelics alter brain function
Recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that psychedelic substances change how brain activity travels across the surface of the brain. The study provides evidence that drugs like LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA reliably reduce the flow of information traveling up into a core brain network associated with self-reflection. These findings offer a new biological explanation for both the therapeutic potential and the psychological risks of using psychedelics to treat mental health conditions.
The default mode network is a collection of interconnected brain regions that are highly active when a person is resting and thinking about themselves. Scientists link this network to introspection, daydreaming, and maintaining a rigid sense of self. In many mental health disorders, such as depression or schizophrenia, the default mode network tends to function abnormally. Because of this connection, researchers want to know exactly how potential psychiatric treatments impact this specific network.
“Psychedelic use is growing faster than our understanding of how these drugs impact the brain, particularly at the level of large-scale brain networks,” said Adam Pines, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, who led the study alongside the study’s senior author, Leanne M. Williams. “Clinically, these unresolved questions limit our ability to know which patients are likely to benefit from psychedelic treatments, and which are at risk of harm.”
Previous studies usually measured brain activity as if it were fixed in place. They looked at average activity in stationary regions over time instead of tracking how signals physically move across the brain tissue.
Brain activity constantly travels in specific directions, either from lower-level sensory areas up to higher-level thinking areas, or vice versa. The upward movement is called bottom-up processing, which involves reacting to basic sensory input. The downward movement is known as top-down processing, where the brain applies past experiences and expectations to interpret incoming information.
“Existing theories on how psychedelics work tend to disagree on a core point: whether psychedelics increase or decrease ‘bottom-up’ brain activity (activity moving from lower-order to higher-order brain areas),” Pines said. “From our perspective, this core premise had not been systematically tested.”
To test this premise, the researchers adapted an analytical method called optical flow. This technique is typically used in computer vision to track the movement of physical objects across video frames. By applying this technique to brain scans, the researchers could evaluate the directional flow of brain activity frame by frame, capturing the exact movement of signals across the cortical surface.
The researchers combined data from four independent studies to test how different psychedelics impact brain activity flow. “Drawing conclusive evidence from psychedelic studies is notoriously difficult,” Pines said. “We tried to establish our results beyond reasonable doubt by replicating our findings across nine different case-control comparisons, involving four datasets and two completely different neuroimaging technologies.”
The first three studies involved human participants who received a specific drug and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging. This type of brain scan, often called fMRI, measures changes in blood flow to detect active brain areas. Before running their optical flow analysis, the authors masked out segments of data interrupted by head motion to ensure their measurements were highly accurate.
In the first study, fourteen healthy adult participants received either a placebo, eighty milligrams of MDMA, or one hundred and twenty milligrams of MDMA. MDMA is a synthetic substance that alters mood and perception. Participants completed multiple scanning sessions across different days, allowing researchers to compare their brain activity with and without the active drug.
The second study evaluated the effects of psilocybin, the active hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms. Six healthy participants underwent numerous fMRI scans. During some sessions, they received twenty-five milligrams of psilocybin. On other days, they received either no drug or an active placebo called methylphenidate, a stimulant medication that mimics the physical arousal caused by psilocybin.
The third study focused on LSD, a powerful chemical that alters perception and thought. Eighteen healthy participants received an intravenous infusion of either LSD or a saline placebo. Following a short acclimatization period, they completed about one hour of fMRI scanning to capture their brain activity under the influence of the substance.
The fourth study involved an entirely different species and measurement technique. Fourteen mice were administered LSD, a sedative called diazepam, or another sedative called dexmedetomidine. Instead of using fMRI, the scientists measured the mouse brain activity using widefield calcium imaging. This technique uses fluorescent markers to directly observe the electrical activity of neurons across the brain surface, providing a different perspective on brain function.
Across all four datasets, the authors looked at two main features of brain signals moving within the default mode network. First, they calculated the magnitude, which is the total volume and strength of the traveling brain waves. Second, they measured directionality, specifically looking at the proportion of signals traveling in a bottom-up direction from sensory regions into the default mode network.
The researchers found that all the tested psychedelics significantly reduced the overall magnitude of cortical activity propagations in the default mode network. In the first study, MDMA lowered the strength of these traveling signals compared to both placebo and baseline scans. The exact same pattern appeared in the second study for psilocybin and the third study for LSD.
When observing the mice in the fourth study, the authors noticed a similar reduction in signal magnitude after administering LSD. The active sedatives given to the mice produced the opposite effect, increasing the magnitude of brain signal movement. This suggests that the reduction in traveling waves is a specific feature of psychedelics rather than a general effect of taking any psychoactive drug.
In addition to shrinking the magnitude of these signals, psychedelics altered the direction of their travel. The human studies showed that MDMA, psilocybin, and LSD all reduced the percentage of signals moving in a bottom-up direction. Instead of information flowing freely from sensory areas up into the default mode network, the overall balance of activity shifted away from bottom-up processing.
The mouse study replicated this directional shift, as LSD significantly decreased bottom-up propagations in the mouse brains. Interestingly, the psilocybin study showed that this attenuation of bottom-up directionality persisted for days after the initial dosage. Scans taken within two days of the psilocybin sessions still exhibited proportionately fewer bottom-up propagations.
The scientists also checked whether these movement changes were linked to the subjective psychological effects of the drugs. In the human studies, participants filled out comprehensive questionnaires about their experiences. The scientists found that greater reductions in bottom-up signaling correlated with more intense negative feelings, such as the dread of losing one’s sense of self and feelings of impaired control.
The results went against the original expectations of the research team. “How psychedelics impact large-scale brain function is not settled science,” Pines told PsyPost. “Our study challenges one of the field’s core assumptions. Many researchers, myself included, expected psychedelics to increase ‘bottom-up’ activity.”
Pines noted that the actual data told a different story. “Instead, we found the opposite,” Pines said. “However, like any study, there are caveats and limitations that come along with this new evidence.”
One prospective issue is the way the researchers interpreted the data at a broad level. “In our human data, we described a group-level effect rather than something that occurs 100% of the time for every individual every time they ingest psychedelics,” Pines said. “This is a standard practice for human neuroimaging studies, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the impact of psychedelics on individual people can be quite variable.”
The concept of bottom-up processing also comes with its own complexities. “Scientists still don’t fully understand what we call bottom-up activity, or the different ways it can occur,” Pines said. “Analytically, we only measured bottom-up activity in one way rather than comprehensively resolving all possible bottom-up activity in the brain.”
The researchers acknowledge that they had to narrow their focus to run the optical flow analyses. “While we had to be reductionistic to evaluate our questions of interest, there are undoubtedly more nuanced aspects of bottom-up and top-down activity that are yet to be discovered in psychedelic research and neuroscience broadly,” Pines said.
These brain wave changes might explain why psychedelics have specific therapeutic effects. For instance, ruminative depression involves excessive, automatic negative thoughts, which researchers link to an overabundance of bottom-up cortical propagations. By reducing these bottom-up signals, psychedelics might interrupt the automatic negative thought loops associated with depression.
A reduction in bottom-up processing could also pose risks for certain vulnerable populations. People at risk for psychosis already experience impaired bottom-up processing, often relying too heavily on top-down expectations, which can lead to hallucinations. Taking a psychedelic might exacerbate this existing imbalance, providing a biological explanation for why these drugs can trigger psychotic episodes in susceptible individuals.
The researchers plan to expand this analytical approach beyond psychedelics to other chemical compounds. “Our lack of understanding of large-scale brain function is not unique to psychedelic drugs,” Pines said. “Although decades of thorough research have revealed a lot about how alcohol, nicotine, and neurologically-active pharmaceuticals operate on individual neurons, our knowledge of how they impact large-scale brain function is quite limited.”
Applying this knowledge could eventually help doctors provide more personalized medical care. “If we can clarify the impacts of neurologically-active substances broadly, we can better anticipate the effects of any given therapeutic drug on individual psychiatric patients and tailor prescriptions accordingly,” Pines said. “This gives us more confidence in our findings, but doesn’t mean that the question is closed. Further study is still needed.”
The study, “Psychedelics disrupt hierarchical cortical propagations in the default mode network of humans and mice,” was authored by Adam R. Pines, Xue Zhang, John Kochalka, Sam S. Vesuna, Isaac V. Kauvar, Divya Rajasekharan, T. Rick Reneau, Teddy J. Akiki, Laura M. Hack, Joshua S. Siegel, and Leanne M. Williams.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PsychedelicsBrainScience #DefaultModeNetwork #BottomUpProcessing #PsychedelicsAndMentalHealth #MDMA #Psilocybin #LSD #NeuroscienceResearch #BrainConnectivity #OpticalFlowNeuroimaging
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DATE: July 30, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Neuroscientists just upended a core assumption about how psychedelics alter brain function
Recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that psychedelic substances change how brain activity travels across the surface of the brain. The study provides evidence that drugs like LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA reliably reduce the flow of information traveling up into a core brain network associated with self-reflection. These findings offer a new biological explanation for both the therapeutic potential and the psychological risks of using psychedelics to treat mental health conditions.
The default mode network is a collection of interconnected brain regions that are highly active when a person is resting and thinking about themselves. Scientists link this network to introspection, daydreaming, and maintaining a rigid sense of self. In many mental health disorders, such as depression or schizophrenia, the default mode network tends to function abnormally. Because of this connection, researchers want to know exactly how potential psychiatric treatments impact this specific network.
“Psychedelic use is growing faster than our understanding of how these drugs impact the brain, particularly at the level of large-scale brain networks,” said Adam Pines, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, who led the study alongside the study’s senior author, Leanne M. Williams. “Clinically, these unresolved questions limit our ability to know which patients are likely to benefit from psychedelic treatments, and which are at risk of harm.”
Previous studies usually measured brain activity as if it were fixed in place. They looked at average activity in stationary regions over time instead of tracking how signals physically move across the brain tissue.
Brain activity constantly travels in specific directions, either from lower-level sensory areas up to higher-level thinking areas, or vice versa. The upward movement is called bottom-up processing, which involves reacting to basic sensory input. The downward movement is known as top-down processing, where the brain applies past experiences and expectations to interpret incoming information.
“Existing theories on how psychedelics work tend to disagree on a core point: whether psychedelics increase or decrease ‘bottom-up’ brain activity (activity moving from lower-order to higher-order brain areas),” Pines said. “From our perspective, this core premise had not been systematically tested.”
To test this premise, the researchers adapted an analytical method called optical flow. This technique is typically used in computer vision to track the movement of physical objects across video frames. By applying this technique to brain scans, the researchers could evaluate the directional flow of brain activity frame by frame, capturing the exact movement of signals across the cortical surface.
The researchers combined data from four independent studies to test how different psychedelics impact brain activity flow. “Drawing conclusive evidence from psychedelic studies is notoriously difficult,” Pines said. “We tried to establish our results beyond reasonable doubt by replicating our findings across nine different case-control comparisons, involving four datasets and two completely different neuroimaging technologies.”
The first three studies involved human participants who received a specific drug and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging. This type of brain scan, often called fMRI, measures changes in blood flow to detect active brain areas. Before running their optical flow analysis, the authors masked out segments of data interrupted by head motion to ensure their measurements were highly accurate.
In the first study, fourteen healthy adult participants received either a placebo, eighty milligrams of MDMA, or one hundred and twenty milligrams of MDMA. MDMA is a synthetic substance that alters mood and perception. Participants completed multiple scanning sessions across different days, allowing researchers to compare their brain activity with and without the active drug.
The second study evaluated the effects of psilocybin, the active hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms. Six healthy participants underwent numerous fMRI scans. During some sessions, they received twenty-five milligrams of psilocybin. On other days, they received either no drug or an active placebo called methylphenidate, a stimulant medication that mimics the physical arousal caused by psilocybin.
The third study focused on LSD, a powerful chemical that alters perception and thought. Eighteen healthy participants received an intravenous infusion of either LSD or a saline placebo. Following a short acclimatization period, they completed about one hour of fMRI scanning to capture their brain activity under the influence of the substance.
The fourth study involved an entirely different species and measurement technique. Fourteen mice were administered LSD, a sedative called diazepam, or another sedative called dexmedetomidine. Instead of using fMRI, the scientists measured the mouse brain activity using widefield calcium imaging. This technique uses fluorescent markers to directly observe the electrical activity of neurons across the brain surface, providing a different perspective on brain function.
Across all four datasets, the authors looked at two main features of brain signals moving within the default mode network. First, they calculated the magnitude, which is the total volume and strength of the traveling brain waves. Second, they measured directionality, specifically looking at the proportion of signals traveling in a bottom-up direction from sensory regions into the default mode network.
The researchers found that all the tested psychedelics significantly reduced the overall magnitude of cortical activity propagations in the default mode network. In the first study, MDMA lowered the strength of these traveling signals compared to both placebo and baseline scans. The exact same pattern appeared in the second study for psilocybin and the third study for LSD.
When observing the mice in the fourth study, the authors noticed a similar reduction in signal magnitude after administering LSD. The active sedatives given to the mice produced the opposite effect, increasing the magnitude of brain signal movement. This suggests that the reduction in traveling waves is a specific feature of psychedelics rather than a general effect of taking any psychoactive drug.
In addition to shrinking the magnitude of these signals, psychedelics altered the direction of their travel. The human studies showed that MDMA, psilocybin, and LSD all reduced the percentage of signals moving in a bottom-up direction. Instead of information flowing freely from sensory areas up into the default mode network, the overall balance of activity shifted away from bottom-up processing.
The mouse study replicated this directional shift, as LSD significantly decreased bottom-up propagations in the mouse brains. Interestingly, the psilocybin study showed that this attenuation of bottom-up directionality persisted for days after the initial dosage. Scans taken within two days of the psilocybin sessions still exhibited proportionately fewer bottom-up propagations.
The scientists also checked whether these movement changes were linked to the subjective psychological effects of the drugs. In the human studies, participants filled out comprehensive questionnaires about their experiences. The scientists found that greater reductions in bottom-up signaling correlated with more intense negative feelings, such as the dread of losing one’s sense of self and feelings of impaired control.
The results went against the original expectations of the research team. “How psychedelics impact large-scale brain function is not settled science,” Pines told PsyPost. “Our study challenges one of the field’s core assumptions. Many researchers, myself included, expected psychedelics to increase ‘bottom-up’ activity.”
Pines noted that the actual data told a different story. “Instead, we found the opposite,” Pines said. “However, like any study, there are caveats and limitations that come along with this new evidence.”
One prospective issue is the way the researchers interpreted the data at a broad level. “In our human data, we described a group-level effect rather than something that occurs 100% of the time for every individual every time they ingest psychedelics,” Pines said. “This is a standard practice for human neuroimaging studies, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the impact of psychedelics on individual people can be quite variable.”
The concept of bottom-up processing also comes with its own complexities. “Scientists still don’t fully understand what we call bottom-up activity, or the different ways it can occur,” Pines said. “Analytically, we only measured bottom-up activity in one way rather than comprehensively resolving all possible bottom-up activity in the brain.”
The researchers acknowledge that they had to narrow their focus to run the optical flow analyses. “While we had to be reductionistic to evaluate our questions of interest, there are undoubtedly more nuanced aspects of bottom-up and top-down activity that are yet to be discovered in psychedelic research and neuroscience broadly,” Pines said.
These brain wave changes might explain why psychedelics have specific therapeutic effects. For instance, ruminative depression involves excessive, automatic negative thoughts, which researchers link to an overabundance of bottom-up cortical propagations. By reducing these bottom-up signals, psychedelics might interrupt the automatic negative thought loops associated with depression.
A reduction in bottom-up processing could also pose risks for certain vulnerable populations. People at risk for psychosis already experience impaired bottom-up processing, often relying too heavily on top-down expectations, which can lead to hallucinations. Taking a psychedelic might exacerbate this existing imbalance, providing a biological explanation for why these drugs can trigger psychotic episodes in susceptible individuals.
The researchers plan to expand this analytical approach beyond psychedelics to other chemical compounds. “Our lack of understanding of large-scale brain function is not unique to psychedelic drugs,” Pines said. “Although decades of thorough research have revealed a lot about how alcohol, nicotine, and neurologically-active pharmaceuticals operate on individual neurons, our knowledge of how they impact large-scale brain function is quite limited.”
Applying this knowledge could eventually help doctors provide more personalized medical care. “If we can clarify the impacts of neurologically-active substances broadly, we can better anticipate the effects of any given therapeutic drug on individual psychiatric patients and tailor prescriptions accordingly,” Pines said. “This gives us more confidence in our findings, but doesn’t mean that the question is closed. Further study is still needed.”
The study, “Psychedelics disrupt hierarchical cortical propagations in the default mode network of humans and mice,” was authored by Adam R. Pines, Xue Zhang, John Kochalka, Sam S. Vesuna, Isaac V. Kauvar, Divya Rajasekharan, T. Rick Reneau, Teddy J. Akiki, Laura M. Hack, Joshua S. Siegel, and Leanne M. Williams.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PsychedelicsBrainScience #DefaultModeNetwork #BottomUpProcessing #PsychedelicsAndMentalHealth #MDMA #Psilocybin #LSD #NeuroscienceResearch #BrainConnectivity #OpticalFlowNeuroimaging
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DATE: July 30, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Neuroscientists just upended a core assumption about how psychedelics alter brain function
Recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that psychedelic substances change how brain activity travels across the surface of the brain. The study provides evidence that drugs like LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA reliably reduce the flow of information traveling up into a core brain network associated with self-reflection. These findings offer a new biological explanation for both the therapeutic potential and the psychological risks of using psychedelics to treat mental health conditions.
The default mode network is a collection of interconnected brain regions that are highly active when a person is resting and thinking about themselves. Scientists link this network to introspection, daydreaming, and maintaining a rigid sense of self. In many mental health disorders, such as depression or schizophrenia, the default mode network tends to function abnormally. Because of this connection, researchers want to know exactly how potential psychiatric treatments impact this specific network.
“Psychedelic use is growing faster than our understanding of how these drugs impact the brain, particularly at the level of large-scale brain networks,” said Adam Pines, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, who led the study alongside the study’s senior author, Leanne M. Williams. “Clinically, these unresolved questions limit our ability to know which patients are likely to benefit from psychedelic treatments, and which are at risk of harm.”
Previous studies usually measured brain activity as if it were fixed in place. They looked at average activity in stationary regions over time instead of tracking how signals physically move across the brain tissue.
Brain activity constantly travels in specific directions, either from lower-level sensory areas up to higher-level thinking areas, or vice versa. The upward movement is called bottom-up processing, which involves reacting to basic sensory input. The downward movement is known as top-down processing, where the brain applies past experiences and expectations to interpret incoming information.
“Existing theories on how psychedelics work tend to disagree on a core point: whether psychedelics increase or decrease ‘bottom-up’ brain activity (activity moving from lower-order to higher-order brain areas),” Pines said. “From our perspective, this core premise had not been systematically tested.”
To test this premise, the researchers adapted an analytical method called optical flow. This technique is typically used in computer vision to track the movement of physical objects across video frames. By applying this technique to brain scans, the researchers could evaluate the directional flow of brain activity frame by frame, capturing the exact movement of signals across the cortical surface.
The researchers combined data from four independent studies to test how different psychedelics impact brain activity flow. “Drawing conclusive evidence from psychedelic studies is notoriously difficult,” Pines said. “We tried to establish our results beyond reasonable doubt by replicating our findings across nine different case-control comparisons, involving four datasets and two completely different neuroimaging technologies.”
The first three studies involved human participants who received a specific drug and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging. This type of brain scan, often called fMRI, measures changes in blood flow to detect active brain areas. Before running their optical flow analysis, the authors masked out segments of data interrupted by head motion to ensure their measurements were highly accurate.
In the first study, fourteen healthy adult participants received either a placebo, eighty milligrams of MDMA, or one hundred and twenty milligrams of MDMA. MDMA is a synthetic substance that alters mood and perception. Participants completed multiple scanning sessions across different days, allowing researchers to compare their brain activity with and without the active drug.
The second study evaluated the effects of psilocybin, the active hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms. Six healthy participants underwent numerous fMRI scans. During some sessions, they received twenty-five milligrams of psilocybin. On other days, they received either no drug or an active placebo called methylphenidate, a stimulant medication that mimics the physical arousal caused by psilocybin.
The third study focused on LSD, a powerful chemical that alters perception and thought. Eighteen healthy participants received an intravenous infusion of either LSD or a saline placebo. Following a short acclimatization period, they completed about one hour of fMRI scanning to capture their brain activity under the influence of the substance.
The fourth study involved an entirely different species and measurement technique. Fourteen mice were administered LSD, a sedative called diazepam, or another sedative called dexmedetomidine. Instead of using fMRI, the scientists measured the mouse brain activity using widefield calcium imaging. This technique uses fluorescent markers to directly observe the electrical activity of neurons across the brain surface, providing a different perspective on brain function.
Across all four datasets, the authors looked at two main features of brain signals moving within the default mode network. First, they calculated the magnitude, which is the total volume and strength of the traveling brain waves. Second, they measured directionality, specifically looking at the proportion of signals traveling in a bottom-up direction from sensory regions into the default mode network.
The researchers found that all the tested psychedelics significantly reduced the overall magnitude of cortical activity propagations in the default mode network. In the first study, MDMA lowered the strength of these traveling signals compared to both placebo and baseline scans. The exact same pattern appeared in the second study for psilocybin and the third study for LSD.
When observing the mice in the fourth study, the authors noticed a similar reduction in signal magnitude after administering LSD. The active sedatives given to the mice produced the opposite effect, increasing the magnitude of brain signal movement. This suggests that the reduction in traveling waves is a specific feature of psychedelics rather than a general effect of taking any psychoactive drug.
In addition to shrinking the magnitude of these signals, psychedelics altered the direction of their travel. The human studies showed that MDMA, psilocybin, and LSD all reduced the percentage of signals moving in a bottom-up direction. Instead of information flowing freely from sensory areas up into the default mode network, the overall balance of activity shifted away from bottom-up processing.
The mouse study replicated this directional shift, as LSD significantly decreased bottom-up propagations in the mouse brains. Interestingly, the psilocybin study showed that this attenuation of bottom-up directionality persisted for days after the initial dosage. Scans taken within two days of the psilocybin sessions still exhibited proportionately fewer bottom-up propagations.
The scientists also checked whether these movement changes were linked to the subjective psychological effects of the drugs. In the human studies, participants filled out comprehensive questionnaires about their experiences. The scientists found that greater reductions in bottom-up signaling correlated with more intense negative feelings, such as the dread of losing one’s sense of self and feelings of impaired control.
The results went against the original expectations of the research team. “How psychedelics impact large-scale brain function is not settled science,” Pines told PsyPost. “Our study challenges one of the field’s core assumptions. Many researchers, myself included, expected psychedelics to increase ‘bottom-up’ activity.”
Pines noted that the actual data told a different story. “Instead, we found the opposite,” Pines said. “However, like any study, there are caveats and limitations that come along with this new evidence.”
One prospective issue is the way the researchers interpreted the data at a broad level. “In our human data, we described a group-level effect rather than something that occurs 100% of the time for every individual every time they ingest psychedelics,” Pines said. “This is a standard practice for human neuroimaging studies, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the impact of psychedelics on individual people can be quite variable.”
The concept of bottom-up processing also comes with its own complexities. “Scientists still don’t fully understand what we call bottom-up activity, or the different ways it can occur,” Pines said. “Analytically, we only measured bottom-up activity in one way rather than comprehensively resolving all possible bottom-up activity in the brain.”
The researchers acknowledge that they had to narrow their focus to run the optical flow analyses. “While we had to be reductionistic to evaluate our questions of interest, there are undoubtedly more nuanced aspects of bottom-up and top-down activity that are yet to be discovered in psychedelic research and neuroscience broadly,” Pines said.
These brain wave changes might explain why psychedelics have specific therapeutic effects. For instance, ruminative depression involves excessive, automatic negative thoughts, which researchers link to an overabundance of bottom-up cortical propagations. By reducing these bottom-up signals, psychedelics might interrupt the automatic negative thought loops associated with depression.
A reduction in bottom-up processing could also pose risks for certain vulnerable populations. People at risk for psychosis already experience impaired bottom-up processing, often relying too heavily on top-down expectations, which can lead to hallucinations. Taking a psychedelic might exacerbate this existing imbalance, providing a biological explanation for why these drugs can trigger psychotic episodes in susceptible individuals.
The researchers plan to expand this analytical approach beyond psychedelics to other chemical compounds. “Our lack of understanding of large-scale brain function is not unique to psychedelic drugs,” Pines said. “Although decades of thorough research have revealed a lot about how alcohol, nicotine, and neurologically-active pharmaceuticals operate on individual neurons, our knowledge of how they impact large-scale brain function is quite limited.”
Applying this knowledge could eventually help doctors provide more personalized medical care. “If we can clarify the impacts of neurologically-active substances broadly, we can better anticipate the effects of any given therapeutic drug on individual psychiatric patients and tailor prescriptions accordingly,” Pines said. “This gives us more confidence in our findings, but doesn’t mean that the question is closed. Further study is still needed.”
The study, “Psychedelics disrupt hierarchical cortical propagations in the default mode network of humans and mice,” was authored by Adam R. Pines, Xue Zhang, John Kochalka, Sam S. Vesuna, Isaac V. Kauvar, Divya Rajasekharan, T. Rick Reneau, Teddy J. Akiki, Laura M. Hack, Joshua S. Siegel, and Leanne M. Williams.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PsychedelicsBrainScience #DefaultModeNetwork #BottomUpProcessing #PsychedelicsAndMentalHealth #MDMA #Psilocybin #LSD #NeuroscienceResearch #BrainConnectivity #OpticalFlowNeuroimaging
-
The list of atrocities committed by this agency is endless.
~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK99G4mrK7A
I have no doubt that all of this has continued and is still continuing.
#MkUltra #CIA #MansonFamily #MindControl #LSD #DrLouisJolyonWest
-
The list of atrocities committed by this agency is endless.
~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK99G4mrK7A
I have no doubt that all of this has continued and is still continuing.
#MkUltra #CIA #MansonFamily #MindControl #LSD #DrLouisJolyonWest
-
The list of atrocities committed by this agency is endless.
~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK99G4mrK7A
I have no doubt that all of this has continued and is still continuing.
#MkUltra #CIA #MansonFamily #MindControl #LSD #DrLouisJolyonWest
-
The list of atrocities committed by this agency is endless.
~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK99G4mrK7A
I have no doubt that all of this has continued and is still continuing.
#MkUltra #CIA #MansonFamily #MindControl #LSD #DrLouisJolyonWest
-
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-
Free download codes:
DRNO1 - Simulation Theory (prod. by Deep N Beeper)
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DRNO1 - Simulation Theory (prod. by Deep N Beeper)
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Free download codes:
DRNO1 - Simulation Theory (prod. by Deep N Beeper)
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"Classical guitar genes in DnB's DNA! Who would've thunk it?"
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"Expect the unexpected in BASS music"
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Deep N Beeper - Acid N Bass
"Expect the unexpected in BASS music"
#electronic #electronica #idm #drumandbass #acid #rave #dubstep #drum bass #dnb #140 #futurebass #140bpm #lsd #multiverse #london #music
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Deep N Beeper - Acid N Bass
"Expect the unexpected in BASS music"
#electronic #electronica #idm #drumandbass #acid #rave #dubstep #drum bass #dnb #140 #futurebass #140bpm #lsd #multiverse #london #music
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I know what it's like to get a blast of #Mafia quality #cocaine when I am perfectly clean, not even weed, and meditating. Every time I believe I saw/heard a bigger it has been different and different each time and #Guru has said it can be hair-raising. #Meditation beats #LSD. LOL Boop boop 🧘🏻♀️🧘🏻♀️🧘🏻♀️
-
DATE: July 18, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Brain scans reveal how LSD desynchronizes local neural activity to alter consciousness
A new analysis of brain imaging data reveals that lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD, reduces the synchronization of local brain activity to produce its mind-altering effects. Published in the European Journal of Neuroscience, the research suggests the hallucinogenic drug interacts with a wider array of brain receptors than previously assumed. These insights help map the biological mechanisms underlying altered states of consciousness and could inform future therapeutic uses of psychedelics.
Over the past decade, medical researchers have renewed their focus on classic psychedelic drugs as potential treatments for psychiatric conditions. Compounds like LSD and psilocybin produce profound changes in perception, mood, and thought. Researchers largely attribute these effects to how the chemical binds to a specific type of serotonin receptor in the brain. But the drug structurally mimics several other chemical messengers, including dopamine and different subtypes of serotonin.
Paolo La-Torraca-Vittori, a researcher at the University of Pavia, and Livio Tarchi of the University of Florence led the current investigation. They aimed to fill a gap in current neuroimaging literature. Most brain scans of people on psychedelics look at large-scale, long-distance communication between widespread brain networks. Few studies have examined what happens to the tiny, localized clusters of brain cells when someone is under the influence of LSD.
The research team focused on two specific metrics that measure the resting state of the brain. The first metric captures the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations. This assesses the power of slow, spontaneous brain waves in a very localized area. When a person is resting, their brain usually produces stable, low-frequency rhythms. A drop in this amplitude means the brain activity is becoming noisier, faster, and more desynchronized.
The second metric evaluates regional homogeneity. This assesses how well a tiny patch of brain tissue synchronizes its electrical activity with its immediate neighboring cells. High regional homogeneity indicates that a small cluster of neurons is firing together in unison. A drop in regional homogeneity suggests that local neurons are operating independently of one another.
To explain why this matters, scientists point to the entropic brain hypothesis. Entropy is a physics concept related to disorder and randomness. In neuroscience, higher entropy means a richer, less predictable pattern of brain states. The entropic brain hypothesis proposes that psychedelics push the brain into a state of higher entropy, increasing disorder in a way that allows for more flexible and dynamic thought processes.
The investigators utilized an open-access database containing the brain scans of 15 healthy adults. Because it involved fewer than 50 participants, this was a small study. During the original data collection, each participant underwent two brain scanning sessions held at least two weeks apart. On one day, they received an intravenous saline placebo. On the other day, they received a moderate, hallucinogenic dose of LSD.
The scanning took place roughly an hour after the drug was administered, capturing the peak of the psychedelic experience. The participants rested inside the scanner with their eyes closed. The scanning device tracked changes in blood flow to map neural activity. La-Torraca-Vittori, Tarchi, and their colleagues computed the two localized metrics for both the placebo and the LSD states. The researchers then overlaid these results onto established brain maps showing the typical distribution of various chemical receptors.
The analysis revealed widespread reductions in both the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations and regional homogeneity when participants were under the influence of LSD. These drops were particularly pronounced in the visual and somatosensory cortices, the brain areas that process sight and incoming touch. The researchers noted that this local fragmentation forces the brain to abandon its normal hierarchical processing setup.
Normally, the human brain operates in a strict functional hierarchy. Sensory regions process basic inputs and then send that data up the chain to associative regions, which interpret the information. Under LSD, this structured hierarchy flattens. Instead of local clusters processing sensory information in specialized silos, the brain integrates information broadly across the entire cortex, blending visual and physical sensations.
The two metrics also highlighted distinct changes in other brain regions. The low-frequency fluctuation metric dropped heavily in areas associated with the default mode network. This network is a group of brain areas active during passive rest, daydreaming, and self-reflection. Disruptions in this network are strongly associated with the breakdown of the conscious self commonly reported by users of psychedelics.
At the same time, regional homogeneity decreased notably in deep subcortical regions like the thalamus and amygdala. These structures act as central hubs for sensory relay and emotional processing. When local synchronization drops in these relay centers, it likely changes how sensory information gets routed to the rest of the brain.
When linking these functional changes to brain chemistry, the team found robust correlations that expanded beyond the primary target of LSD. As expected, some localization related to the primary 5-HT2A serotonin receptor. Yet the drops in both brain metrics consistently mirrored the distribution patterns of dopamine D2 receptors and an alternative serotonin receptor known as 5-HT1A.
A receptor is a protein structure on the surface of a cell that receives chemical signals. When a chemical locks into a receptor, it triggers a biological response inside the cell. Brain areas with fewer of these specific dopamine and serotonin receptors experienced the greatest decreases in local synchronization and low-frequency rhythms under LSD.
This alignment dictates that LSD initiates a cascade of neurochemical events spanning multiple messenger systems. The authors suggest that regions enriched with certain dopamine and serotonin receptors might actually be shielded from the desynchronizing effects of the drug. Alternatively, the drug might indirectly activate these adjacent pathways, leading to the varied sensory and emotional shifts that characterize the experience.
While the data offers new perspectives on the physical mechanics of psychedelics, the researchers acknowledged several limitations. The analysis relied on a small sample size, requiring replication in broader populations to ensure the ultimate reliability of the findings. The team also used standardized maps of receptor density from a general population rather than maps of the actual participants’ brains, which limits the precision of the chemical correlations.
In addition, the resting scans analyzed in this project took place after a music-listening session. The researchers caution that the lingering emotional or neurological effects of listening to music could have shaped the resting state data independently of the chemical infusion. A slight difference in head motion between the placebo and LSD groups remained even after data filtering, leaving open the possibility of minor scanning artifacts.
Future investigations will likely compare these localized measures with other brain monitoring technologies. By mapping both the physical location and the precise timing of these neural changes, scientists hope to fully decode how altered brain chemistry reshapes the human mind. The exploration of localized dynamics offers a key stepping stone toward developing safe, targeted psychedelic therapies in the future.
The study, “Knocking at the Doors of Perception: Relating LSD Effects on Low-Frequency Fluctuations and Regional Homogeneity to Receptor Densities in fMRI,” was authored by Paolo La-Torraca-Vittori, Livio Tarchi, Elisa Arrigo, Stefano Lanterna, Eleonora Tosi, Arne Doose, Fulvia Palesi, Doris Pischedda, Valdo Ricca, Paolo Fusar-Poli, and Stefano Damiani.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #LSD BrainImaging #PsychedelicResearch #Neuroscience #BrainConnectivity #LowFrequencyFluctuations #RegionalHomogeneity #5HT2A #DopamineD2 #ConsciousnessAlteration #PsychedelicTherapy
-
DATE: July 18, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Brain scans reveal how LSD desynchronizes local neural activity to alter consciousness
A new analysis of brain imaging data reveals that lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD, reduces the synchronization of local brain activity to produce its mind-altering effects. Published in the European Journal of Neuroscience, the research suggests the hallucinogenic drug interacts with a wider array of brain receptors than previously assumed. These insights help map the biological mechanisms underlying altered states of consciousness and could inform future therapeutic uses of psychedelics.
Over the past decade, medical researchers have renewed their focus on classic psychedelic drugs as potential treatments for psychiatric conditions. Compounds like LSD and psilocybin produce profound changes in perception, mood, and thought. Researchers largely attribute these effects to how the chemical binds to a specific type of serotonin receptor in the brain. But the drug structurally mimics several other chemical messengers, including dopamine and different subtypes of serotonin.
Paolo La-Torraca-Vittori, a researcher at the University of Pavia, and Livio Tarchi of the University of Florence led the current investigation. They aimed to fill a gap in current neuroimaging literature. Most brain scans of people on psychedelics look at large-scale, long-distance communication between widespread brain networks. Few studies have examined what happens to the tiny, localized clusters of brain cells when someone is under the influence of LSD.
The research team focused on two specific metrics that measure the resting state of the brain. The first metric captures the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations. This assesses the power of slow, spontaneous brain waves in a very localized area. When a person is resting, their brain usually produces stable, low-frequency rhythms. A drop in this amplitude means the brain activity is becoming noisier, faster, and more desynchronized.
The second metric evaluates regional homogeneity. This assesses how well a tiny patch of brain tissue synchronizes its electrical activity with its immediate neighboring cells. High regional homogeneity indicates that a small cluster of neurons is firing together in unison. A drop in regional homogeneity suggests that local neurons are operating independently of one another.
To explain why this matters, scientists point to the entropic brain hypothesis. Entropy is a physics concept related to disorder and randomness. In neuroscience, higher entropy means a richer, less predictable pattern of brain states. The entropic brain hypothesis proposes that psychedelics push the brain into a state of higher entropy, increasing disorder in a way that allows for more flexible and dynamic thought processes.
The investigators utilized an open-access database containing the brain scans of 15 healthy adults. Because it involved fewer than 50 participants, this was a small study. During the original data collection, each participant underwent two brain scanning sessions held at least two weeks apart. On one day, they received an intravenous saline placebo. On the other day, they received a moderate, hallucinogenic dose of LSD.
The scanning took place roughly an hour after the drug was administered, capturing the peak of the psychedelic experience. The participants rested inside the scanner with their eyes closed. The scanning device tracked changes in blood flow to map neural activity. La-Torraca-Vittori, Tarchi, and their colleagues computed the two localized metrics for both the placebo and the LSD states. The researchers then overlaid these results onto established brain maps showing the typical distribution of various chemical receptors.
The analysis revealed widespread reductions in both the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations and regional homogeneity when participants were under the influence of LSD. These drops were particularly pronounced in the visual and somatosensory cortices, the brain areas that process sight and incoming touch. The researchers noted that this local fragmentation forces the brain to abandon its normal hierarchical processing setup.
Normally, the human brain operates in a strict functional hierarchy. Sensory regions process basic inputs and then send that data up the chain to associative regions, which interpret the information. Under LSD, this structured hierarchy flattens. Instead of local clusters processing sensory information in specialized silos, the brain integrates information broadly across the entire cortex, blending visual and physical sensations.
The two metrics also highlighted distinct changes in other brain regions. The low-frequency fluctuation metric dropped heavily in areas associated with the default mode network. This network is a group of brain areas active during passive rest, daydreaming, and self-reflection. Disruptions in this network are strongly associated with the breakdown of the conscious self commonly reported by users of psychedelics.
At the same time, regional homogeneity decreased notably in deep subcortical regions like the thalamus and amygdala. These structures act as central hubs for sensory relay and emotional processing. When local synchronization drops in these relay centers, it likely changes how sensory information gets routed to the rest of the brain.
When linking these functional changes to brain chemistry, the team found robust correlations that expanded beyond the primary target of LSD. As expected, some localization related to the primary 5-HT2A serotonin receptor. Yet the drops in both brain metrics consistently mirrored the distribution patterns of dopamine D2 receptors and an alternative serotonin receptor known as 5-HT1A.
A receptor is a protein structure on the surface of a cell that receives chemical signals. When a chemical locks into a receptor, it triggers a biological response inside the cell. Brain areas with fewer of these specific dopamine and serotonin receptors experienced the greatest decreases in local synchronization and low-frequency rhythms under LSD.
This alignment dictates that LSD initiates a cascade of neurochemical events spanning multiple messenger systems. The authors suggest that regions enriched with certain dopamine and serotonin receptors might actually be shielded from the desynchronizing effects of the drug. Alternatively, the drug might indirectly activate these adjacent pathways, leading to the varied sensory and emotional shifts that characterize the experience.
While the data offers new perspectives on the physical mechanics of psychedelics, the researchers acknowledged several limitations. The analysis relied on a small sample size, requiring replication in broader populations to ensure the ultimate reliability of the findings. The team also used standardized maps of receptor density from a general population rather than maps of the actual participants’ brains, which limits the precision of the chemical correlations.
In addition, the resting scans analyzed in this project took place after a music-listening session. The researchers caution that the lingering emotional or neurological effects of listening to music could have shaped the resting state data independently of the chemical infusion. A slight difference in head motion between the placebo and LSD groups remained even after data filtering, leaving open the possibility of minor scanning artifacts.
Future investigations will likely compare these localized measures with other brain monitoring technologies. By mapping both the physical location and the precise timing of these neural changes, scientists hope to fully decode how altered brain chemistry reshapes the human mind. The exploration of localized dynamics offers a key stepping stone toward developing safe, targeted psychedelic therapies in the future.
The study, “Knocking at the Doors of Perception: Relating LSD Effects on Low-Frequency Fluctuations and Regional Homogeneity to Receptor Densities in fMRI,” was authored by Paolo La-Torraca-Vittori, Livio Tarchi, Elisa Arrigo, Stefano Lanterna, Eleonora Tosi, Arne Doose, Fulvia Palesi, Doris Pischedda, Valdo Ricca, Paolo Fusar-Poli, and Stefano Damiani.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #LSD BrainImaging #PsychedelicResearch #Neuroscience #BrainConnectivity #LowFrequencyFluctuations #RegionalHomogeneity #5HT2A #DopamineD2 #ConsciousnessAlteration #PsychedelicTherapy
-
DATE: July 18, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Brain scans reveal how LSD desynchronizes local neural activity to alter consciousness
A new analysis of brain imaging data reveals that lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD, reduces the synchronization of local brain activity to produce its mind-altering effects. Published in the European Journal of Neuroscience, the research suggests the hallucinogenic drug interacts with a wider array of brain receptors than previously assumed. These insights help map the biological mechanisms underlying altered states of consciousness and could inform future therapeutic uses of psychedelics.
Over the past decade, medical researchers have renewed their focus on classic psychedelic drugs as potential treatments for psychiatric conditions. Compounds like LSD and psilocybin produce profound changes in perception, mood, and thought. Researchers largely attribute these effects to how the chemical binds to a specific type of serotonin receptor in the brain. But the drug structurally mimics several other chemical messengers, including dopamine and different subtypes of serotonin.
Paolo La-Torraca-Vittori, a researcher at the University of Pavia, and Livio Tarchi of the University of Florence led the current investigation. They aimed to fill a gap in current neuroimaging literature. Most brain scans of people on psychedelics look at large-scale, long-distance communication between widespread brain networks. Few studies have examined what happens to the tiny, localized clusters of brain cells when someone is under the influence of LSD.
The research team focused on two specific metrics that measure the resting state of the brain. The first metric captures the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations. This assesses the power of slow, spontaneous brain waves in a very localized area. When a person is resting, their brain usually produces stable, low-frequency rhythms. A drop in this amplitude means the brain activity is becoming noisier, faster, and more desynchronized.
The second metric evaluates regional homogeneity. This assesses how well a tiny patch of brain tissue synchronizes its electrical activity with its immediate neighboring cells. High regional homogeneity indicates that a small cluster of neurons is firing together in unison. A drop in regional homogeneity suggests that local neurons are operating independently of one another.
To explain why this matters, scientists point to the entropic brain hypothesis. Entropy is a physics concept related to disorder and randomness. In neuroscience, higher entropy means a richer, less predictable pattern of brain states. The entropic brain hypothesis proposes that psychedelics push the brain into a state of higher entropy, increasing disorder in a way that allows for more flexible and dynamic thought processes.
The investigators utilized an open-access database containing the brain scans of 15 healthy adults. Because it involved fewer than 50 participants, this was a small study. During the original data collection, each participant underwent two brain scanning sessions held at least two weeks apart. On one day, they received an intravenous saline placebo. On the other day, they received a moderate, hallucinogenic dose of LSD.
The scanning took place roughly an hour after the drug was administered, capturing the peak of the psychedelic experience. The participants rested inside the scanner with their eyes closed. The scanning device tracked changes in blood flow to map neural activity. La-Torraca-Vittori, Tarchi, and their colleagues computed the two localized metrics for both the placebo and the LSD states. The researchers then overlaid these results onto established brain maps showing the typical distribution of various chemical receptors.
The analysis revealed widespread reductions in both the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations and regional homogeneity when participants were under the influence of LSD. These drops were particularly pronounced in the visual and somatosensory cortices, the brain areas that process sight and incoming touch. The researchers noted that this local fragmentation forces the brain to abandon its normal hierarchical processing setup.
Normally, the human brain operates in a strict functional hierarchy. Sensory regions process basic inputs and then send that data up the chain to associative regions, which interpret the information. Under LSD, this structured hierarchy flattens. Instead of local clusters processing sensory information in specialized silos, the brain integrates information broadly across the entire cortex, blending visual and physical sensations.
The two metrics also highlighted distinct changes in other brain regions. The low-frequency fluctuation metric dropped heavily in areas associated with the default mode network. This network is a group of brain areas active during passive rest, daydreaming, and self-reflection. Disruptions in this network are strongly associated with the breakdown of the conscious self commonly reported by users of psychedelics.
At the same time, regional homogeneity decreased notably in deep subcortical regions like the thalamus and amygdala. These structures act as central hubs for sensory relay and emotional processing. When local synchronization drops in these relay centers, it likely changes how sensory information gets routed to the rest of the brain.
When linking these functional changes to brain chemistry, the team found robust correlations that expanded beyond the primary target of LSD. As expected, some localization related to the primary 5-HT2A serotonin receptor. Yet the drops in both brain metrics consistently mirrored the distribution patterns of dopamine D2 receptors and an alternative serotonin receptor known as 5-HT1A.
A receptor is a protein structure on the surface of a cell that receives chemical signals. When a chemical locks into a receptor, it triggers a biological response inside the cell. Brain areas with fewer of these specific dopamine and serotonin receptors experienced the greatest decreases in local synchronization and low-frequency rhythms under LSD.
This alignment dictates that LSD initiates a cascade of neurochemical events spanning multiple messenger systems. The authors suggest that regions enriched with certain dopamine and serotonin receptors might actually be shielded from the desynchronizing effects of the drug. Alternatively, the drug might indirectly activate these adjacent pathways, leading to the varied sensory and emotional shifts that characterize the experience.
While the data offers new perspectives on the physical mechanics of psychedelics, the researchers acknowledged several limitations. The analysis relied on a small sample size, requiring replication in broader populations to ensure the ultimate reliability of the findings. The team also used standardized maps of receptor density from a general population rather than maps of the actual participants’ brains, which limits the precision of the chemical correlations.
In addition, the resting scans analyzed in this project took place after a music-listening session. The researchers caution that the lingering emotional or neurological effects of listening to music could have shaped the resting state data independently of the chemical infusion. A slight difference in head motion between the placebo and LSD groups remained even after data filtering, leaving open the possibility of minor scanning artifacts.
Future investigations will likely compare these localized measures with other brain monitoring technologies. By mapping both the physical location and the precise timing of these neural changes, scientists hope to fully decode how altered brain chemistry reshapes the human mind. The exploration of localized dynamics offers a key stepping stone toward developing safe, targeted psychedelic therapies in the future.
The study, “Knocking at the Doors of Perception: Relating LSD Effects on Low-Frequency Fluctuations and Regional Homogeneity to Receptor Densities in fMRI,” was authored by Paolo La-Torraca-Vittori, Livio Tarchi, Elisa Arrigo, Stefano Lanterna, Eleonora Tosi, Arne Doose, Fulvia Palesi, Doris Pischedda, Valdo Ricca, Paolo Fusar-Poli, and Stefano Damiani.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #LSD BrainImaging #PsychedelicResearch #Neuroscience #BrainConnectivity #LowFrequencyFluctuations #RegionalHomogeneity #5HT2A #DopamineD2 #ConsciousnessAlteration #PsychedelicTherapy
-
#LSD's original name was LSD-25.
Dr Albert Hofmann synthesised new forms until number 25 when flying purple giraffes blocked the lab's portcullis. -
#LSD's original name was LSD-25.
Dr Albert Hofmann synthesised new forms until number 25 when flying purple giraffes blocked the lab's portcullis. -
#LSD's original name was LSD-25.
Dr Albert Hofmann synthesised new forms until number 25 when flying purple giraffes blocked the lab's portcullis. -
LSD
LSD's original name was LSD-25. Dr Albert Hofmann synthesized new forms until number 25 when flying purple giraffes blocked the lab's portcullis. -
LSD
LSD's original name was LSD-25. Dr Albert Hofmann synthesized new forms until number 25 when flying purple giraffes blocked the lab's portcullis. -
LSD
LSD's original name was LSD-25. Dr Albert Hofmann synthesized new forms until number 25 when flying purple giraffes blocked the lab's portcullis. -
LSD
LSD's original name was LSD-25. Dr Albert Hofmann synthesized new forms until number 25 when flying purple giraffes blocked the lab's portcullis. -
LSD
LSD's original name was LSD-25. Dr Albert Hofmann synthesized new forms until number 25 when flying purple giraffes blocked the lab's portcullis. -
What could possibly go wrong...?
HISTORIC: #VA & #HHS TEAM UP ON #DRUG TRIALS
Discover how VA and HHS are teaming up to explore whether psychedelic drugs might play a role in saving the lives of Veterans and others with serious mental illness. Learn how research, safety, and innovation are transforming #MentalHealth care."
So handing out #LSD , #Mescaline , #Molly, #Peyote, or whatever trippy narcotics they have on hand will help #veterans with #PTSD or #depression ?
-
What could possibly go wrong...?
HISTORIC: #VA & #HHS TEAM UP ON #DRUG TRIALS
Discover how VA and HHS are teaming up to explore whether psychedelic drugs might play a role in saving the lives of Veterans and others with serious mental illness. Learn how research, safety, and innovation are transforming #MentalHealth care."
So handing out #LSD , #Mescaline , #Molly, #Peyote, or whatever trippy narcotics they have on hand will help #veterans with #PTSD or #depression ?
-
What could possibly go wrong...?
HISTORIC: #VA & #HHS TEAM UP ON #DRUG TRIALS
Discover how VA and HHS are teaming up to explore whether psychedelic drugs might play a role in saving the lives of Veterans and others with serious mental illness. Learn how research, safety, and innovation are transforming #MentalHealth care."
So handing out #LSD , #Mescaline , #Molly, #Peyote, or whatever trippy narcotics they have on hand will help #veterans with #PTSD or #depression ?
-
What could possibly go wrong...?
HISTORIC: #VA & #HHS TEAM UP ON #DRUG TRIALS
Discover how VA and HHS are teaming up to explore whether psychedelic drugs might play a role in saving the lives of Veterans and others with serious mental illness. Learn how research, safety, and innovation are transforming #MentalHealth care."
So handing out #LSD , #Mescaline , #Molly, #Peyote, or whatever trippy narcotics they have on hand will help #veterans with #PTSD or #depression ?
