Research on Schedule I substances in the United States remains heavily restricted by the regulatory structure imposed by the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This regulatory system creates significant Research Harm, which can be defined as the restriction or deterrence of legitimate scientific inquiry arising from governmental actions, such as regulatory controls or criminal prohibitions that...
Abstract Fear extinction requires dynamic updating of cortical representations, yet the neural mechanisms underlying successful extinction remain poorly understood. Some psychoactive substances induce structural plasticity in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), possibly underlying their therapeutic potential. Here we investigated whether MDMA, which enhances fear extinction, induces prefrontal...
Psychedelic drugs have garnered increasing attention for their therapeutic potential in treating a variety of psychiatric diseases, such as depression, anxiety, and substance use disorder. The claustrum (CLA), a brain area with remarkable interconnectivity to frontal cortices, has recently been shown to have a dense population of serotonin 2 receptors (5-HT2Rs) that are activated by...
Recent evidence indicates that neuronal activity within the claustrum (CLA) may be central to cellular and behavioral responses to psychedelic hallucinogens. The CLA prominently innervates many cortical targets and displays exceptionally high levels of serotonin (5-HT) binding. However, the influence of serotonin receptors, prime targets of psychedelic drug action, on CLA activity remains...