Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist that has shown effectiveness as a rapidly acting treatment for depression. Although advances have been made in understanding ketamine's antidepressant pharmacological and molecular mechanisms of action, the large-scale neurocognitive mechanisms driving its therapeutic effects are less clearly understood. To help provide such a framework,...
Heavy cannabis use is associated with reduced motivation. The basal ganglia, central in the motivation system, have the brain's highest cannabinoid receptor density. The frontal lobe is functionally coupled to the basal ganglia via segregated frontal-subcortical circuits conveying information from internal, self-generated activity. The basal ganglia, however, receive additional influence from...
The brain's default mode network (DMN) has become closely associated with self-referential mental activity, particularly in the resting-state. While the DMN is important for such processes, it has functions other than self-reference, and self-referential processes are supported by regions outside of the DMN. In our study of 88 participants, we examined self-referential and resting-state...