Brain ResearchSeptember 7, 2026Eleni Kroupi, Helena Araujo, Cas Oosterveld et al.
N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a potent serotonin-2A receptor agonist, elicits intense psychedelic experiences and has become a focus of interest in neuroscience and mental health research. While EEG studies of psychedelics typically report reduced alpha power, increased delta power, and enhanced signal complexity-primarily assessed using Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZc)-less is known about DMT's...
Current approaches to the study of consciousness have significantly advanced our understanding of this widespread phenomenon in neurocognitive science. Research involving EEG oscillatory dynamics and electromagnetic field activity within brain tissue has provided increasingly detailed insights into arousal states. The neuro-molecular bases of conscious experience have been further clarified,...
Brain ResearchJanuary 2, 2026B.s. Rabinovitch, N. Silverman, D. Ji et al.
Background and rationaleLysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a promising therapeutic for psychiatric disorders, but its physiological profile on the nervous system remains elusive. Rodent electrophysiological data has utilized in vivo single-unit electrophysiology recordings, while clinical neurophysiology studies have focused on spectral signatures using electroencephalography (EEG) and...
Brain ResearchJune 19, 2025Zoé Dary, Paul Kobliska, Jacques Léonard et al.
The vestibular system plays a crucial role in body and self perception, as evidenced by the effects of artificial vestibular stimulation in healthy individuals and the depersonalization-like symptoms observed in patients with otoneurological disorders. However, its role in the bodily self-an immediate and pre-reflective form of self-consciousness-remains relatively unexplored. This study...
Psychedelics show promise in treating psychiatric disorders. Therapeutic effects appear to involve activation of the 5-Hydroxytryptamine 2A receptor (5-HT2AR), a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). Several SNPs of the 5-HT2AR naturally occur, which are associated with differences in receptor function and altered responsiveness to treatments. New compounds suspected to act at the 5-HT2AR are...
Brain ResearchJanuary 15, 2025Lijie Zhou, Xianlei Wang, Tianyu Cao et al.4 citations
Esketamine is commonly used for sedation or general anaesthesia in infants and young children. However, repeated esketamine administration during periods of rapid brain growth and development may result in various pathophysiological and cognitive changes. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the influence of recurrent esketamine exposure on long-term behavioural and white matter...
Psychedelic drugs that activate the 5HT2A receptor have long been the target of extensive clinical research, particularly in models of psychiatric illness. The aim of this literature review was to investigate the therapeutic effects of 5HT2A receptor activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the respective mechanisms that underlie them. Based on the available research, I suggest...
Brain Research2025Ernestas Cizus, Urte Jasinskyte, Robertas Guzulaitis3 citations
Schizophrenia is believed to be, at least in part, a dysfunction of the glutamatergic system. In line with anatomical evidence, suppressing N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) neurotransmission leads to symptoms that are characteristic of schizophrenia. Rodent models of schizophrenia often involve the acute application of NMDA antagonists, which produce both behavioural and brain activity changes that...
The intersection of neuroscience and technology hinges on the development of wearable devices and electrodes that can augment brain networks to improve cognitive capabilities such as learning and concentration. The capacity to enhance networks associated with these functions above baseline capabilities, holds the potential to benefit numerous individuals. The purpose of this study was to...
Clinical evidence suggests that Esketamine (ESK) is an effective treatment for depression. However, the effects of Esketamine in treating depression-like behavior induced by neuropathic pain is unclear. The underlying molecular mechanisms require further investigation to provide new therapeutic targets for the treatment of clinical neuropathic pain-related depression. A neuropathic pain-related...
Considering the increasing usage of ketamine as a recreational drug with hallucinogenic properties and also scarce studies about receptor systems responsible for its effects, in the present study we aimed to investigate whether the activation of the ventral hippocampal (VH) CB1 cannabinoid receptors affects the anxiety-like behaviors induced by ketamine. Also, the levels of BDNF and c-Fos...
Human cerebral organoids (HCOs) are an in vitro model of early neural development, aimed at modelling and understanding brain development and neurological disorders. In just a few years there has been rapid and considerable progress in the attempt to create a brain model capable of showcasing the characteristics of the human brain. There are still strong limitations to address, including the...
Juvenile stress, like that caused by childhood maltreatment, is a significant risk factor for psychiatric disorders such as depression later in life. Recently, the antidepressant effect of ketamine, a noncompetitive N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist, has been widely investigated. However, little is known regarding its efficacy against depressive-like alterations caused by juvenile...
MDMA (3,4-methylendioxymethamphetamine), also known as Ecstasy, is a stimulant drug recreationally used by young adults usually in dance clubs and raves. Acute MDMA administration increases serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline by reversing the action of the monoamine transporters. In this work, we review the studies carried out over the last 30 years on the neuropsychobiological effects of...
The non-competitive glutamate antagonist, phencyclidine is used in rodents to model behavioural deficits see in schizophrenia. Importantly, these deficits endure long after the cessation of short-term chronic treatment (sub-chronic), indicating that the drug treatment causes long-term changes in the physiology and/or chemistry of the brain. There is evidence that this may occur through...
The aim of the current study was to examine the effect of dorsal hippocampal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) activation on the functional interaction between ethanol and 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy) in memory retrieval. The dorsal hippocampal CA1 regions of adult male NMRI mice were bilaterally cannulated and memory retrieval was measured in a step-down...
Marijuana use during adolescence has reached virtually every strata of society. The general population has the perception that marijuana use is safe for mature people and therefore is also safe for developing adolescents. However, both clinical and preclinical research shows that marijuana use, particularly prior to age 16, could have long-term effects on cognition, anxiety and stress-related...
Brain ResearchDecember 10, 2015Jong-Hoon Kim, Young-Don Son, Jeong-Hee Kim et al.
Self-transcendence is an inherent human personality trait relating to the experience of spiritual aspects of the self. We examined the relationship between self-transcendence and serotonin transporter (SERT) availability in brainstem raphe nuclei, which are collections of five different serotonergic nuclei with rostro-caudal extension, using ultra-high resolution magnetic resonance imaging...
Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug worldwide. Recent trends indicate that this may soon change; not due to decreased marijuana use, but to an amendment in marijuana's illegal status. The cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptor mediates marijuana's psychoactive and reinforcing properties. CB1 receptors are also part of the brain endocannabinoid (eCB) system and support numerous forms of...
Brain ResearchMay 22, 2015Dmitry V Zaretsky, Maria V Zaretskaia, Pamela J Durant et al.
The contribution of exercise to hyperthermia mediated by MDMA is not known. We recently showed that inhibiting the dorsomedial hypothalamus (DMH) attenuated spontaneous locomotion and hyperthermia and prevented deaths in rats given MDMA in a warm environment. The goal of this study was to confirm that restoring locomotion through a treadmill would reverse these effects thereby confirming that...
It has been shown that electrical stimulation of the mesencephalic tectum (MT) provokes defensive responses in both humans and rodents. During an emotional aversive state, some convergent studies have also demonstrated the existence of a complex interaction between endogenous opioid peptide- and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-containing connections during fear-induced responses. It has been...
Brain ResearchFebruary 22, 2014Ryan W J Steel, John H Miller, Dalice A Sim et al.
Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug, and disruption of learning and memory are commonly reported consequences of cannabis use. We have previously demonstrated a spatial learning impairment by ∆(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in adolescent Sprague-Dawley rats (Steel et al., 2011). The molecular mechanisms underlying behavioural impairment by cannabis remain poorly understood, although...
The phenethylamine and indoleamine classes of hallucinogens demonstrate distinct pharmacological properties, although they share a serotonin(2A) (5-HT(2A)) receptor mechanism of action (MOA). The 5-HT(2A) receptor signals through phosphatidylinositol (PI) hydrolysis, which is initiated upon activation of phospholipase C (PLC). The role of PI hydrolysis in the effects of hallucinogens remains...
Instead of using low-level neurophysiology mimicking and exploratory programming methods commonly used in the machine consciousness field, the hierarchical operational architectonics (OA) framework of brain and mind functioning proposes an alternative conceptual-theoretical framework as a new direction in the area of model-driven machine (robot) consciousness engineering. The unified brain-mind...
While goal-directed thinking has received the lion's share of neuroscientific attention, its counterpart--the undirected thought flow that comes to mind unbidden and without effort--has remained largely on the sidelines of scientific research. Such undirected thought, however, forms a large part of our mental experience. The last decade of neuroscientific investigations marked a resurgence of...