Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
August 1, 2006
Ilaria Tamburini, Fabio Blandini, Marco Gesi et al.
24 citations
MDMA treatment activates caspase-3, an enzyme involved in cell death, in the amygdala and hippocampus of rodents, but not in the striatum or frontal cortex. This indicates that limbic brain structures are particularly sensitive to MDMA's potential to trigger apoptotic pathways, which may help explain memory loss and cognitive impairments observed in chronic MDMA users.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
June 1, 2002
Emmanuel S Onaivi, Syed F. Ali, Sanika S Chirwa et al.
23 citations
Mapping the human genetic code may help identify genes involved in addictions. Microarray technologies have linked specific genes to diseases. Pharmacological treatments for addiction have been largely disappointing, prompting interest in the controversial natural alkaloid ibogaine. Research on gene expression and signaling molecules in rat brain models shows that psychostimulants like methamphetamine and cocaine alter long-term potentiation in the hippocampus, possibly creating a threshold beyond which excessive brain stimulation occludes LTP. Ibogaine broadly regulates these signal transduction pathways and influences immediate early genes, suggesting it may signal addiction-related gene products, though further evaluation is needed.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
May 1, 1998
Yossef Itzhak, Syed F. Ali
20 citations
Ibogaine, a hallucinogenic alkaloid, may help treat opioid and cocaine addiction. Its neurochemical mechanisms are unclear. In rat cortex and cerebellum membrane preparations, ibogaine bound to high- and low-affinity phencyclidine (PCP) sites in the cortex (Ki(H) = 0.01-0.05 μM; Ki(L) = 2-4 μM) and only low-affinity sites in the cerebellum (Ki = 2-4 μM). It showed no affinity for NMDA receptor binding sites at concentrations >100 μM. Affinity for sigma-1 and sigma-2 sites ranged from 1.5-3 μM. Binding to PCP sites may contribute to ibogaine's potential anti-addiction properties, while sigma site interactions may cause adverse effects.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
November 20, 2023
Katarina Jerotic, Peter Vuust, Morten L. Kringelbach
19 citations
Music and psychedelics have been intertwined throughout human history, from early shamanic rituals to modern psychedelic-assisted therapy. This review examines their interplay, describing how both engage the brain's functional hierarchy for music perception and its psychedelic-induced manipulation. It explores music's role in Western psychedelic therapy and indigenous rituals, focusing on ayahuasca and the Santo Daime Church. The work also considers music's potential to induce altered states of consciousness without psychedelics and the development of psychedelic music. The authors provide an overview of several perspectives on this interaction, a topic of growing interest given increasing excitement about psychedelic interventions' therapeutic efficacy.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
August 26, 2022
C. Martial, O. Gosseries, H. Cassol et al.
17 citations
This commentary criticizes a recent paper by Parnia and colleagues that proposed guidelines for studying death and near-death experiences. The authors argue that the original paper contains omissions and knowledge gaps, including incorrect neurological claims about brain death and misunderstandings about consciousness terminology. While the commentators agree that research on near-death experiences needs a framework, they contend that the Parnia paper is misleading and, despite its intentions, actually impedes scientific understanding of near-death experiences and the neural mechanisms of the dying brain.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
August 1, 2005
Ronald I. Herning
17 citations
People who use MDMA (ecstasy) show distinct brain changes compared to those who use only marijuana or no drugs. In a study of eight MDMA users, eight users of both MDMA and marijuana, fifteen marijuana-only users, and seventeen non-user controls, electroencephalography (EEG) recordings revealed that MDMA users had significantly higher absolute delta wave power at central electrode sites, a pattern not seen in the other groups. Marijuana-only users showed increases in alpha-2 power. Blood flow velocity in the middle cerebral arteries, measured by transcranial Doppler, was higher in MDMA users regardless of marijuana use. These brain changes, similar to those seen in chronic disorders, suggest MDMA may cause long-term neurological harm, though more research is needed.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
October 31, 1996
J P O'Callaghan, T S Rogers, L E Rodman et al.
14 citations
High doses of ibogaine, a psychoactive alkaloid, damage brain regions beyond the cerebellum in rats, with effects depending on sex and dosage. Single doses caused dose-related increases in GFAP, a marker of brain cell injury, across multiple brain areas in both sexes. Repeated doses led to large GFAP increases (up to 200% of control) in the hippocampus, olfactory bulbs, brain stem, and striatum of female rats but not males. In the hippocampus of chronically treated females, other structural proteins also increased, suggesting a sprouting response to damage. The findings indicate that ibogaine's neurotoxic effects are not limited to the cerebellum and vary by sex and dosing schedule.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
June 21, 2022
R. Evrard, E. Pratte, Th. Rabeyron
13 citations
A critique argues that a recent proposal to relabel near-death experiences (NDEs) as “recalled experience of death” and to consider only those with objective danger as “authentic” is not well supported by data. Instead, NDEs form a continuum of varied conscious experiences arising from the separation of processes normally combined in mental activity. The claimed core phenomenology of NDEs faces multiple criticisms, and closeness to actual death is not a decisive feature. The authors’ reliance on Raymond Moody’s model creates a biased division that cannot serve as a basis for consensus.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
May 1, 1998
Zbigniew Binienda, Michael A Beaudoin, Brett T Thorn et al.
13 citations
Ibogaine, a psychoactive alkaloid with antiaddictive properties, can cause neurotoxicity. In anesthetized rats, a single 50 mg/kg dose of ibogaine produced an immediate decrease in heart rate and reduced EEG power across delta, theta, alpha, and beta frequency bands during the first 30 minutes, with recovery within 15 minutes. In the caudate nucleus, dopamine levels fell while dopamine turnover increased; serotonin levels rose in the frontal cortex. These physiological changes likely stem from ibogaine's interactions with multiple neurotransmitter systems.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
May 1, 1998
Emmanuel S Onaivi, Syed F. Ali, Amitabha Chakrabarti
13 citations
Ibogaine, a substance with potential antiaddiction effects against alcohol, psychostimulants, and opiates, was studied in mice and cell cultures to explore its mechanism. In mice, acute ibogaine doses reduced aversion to open arms in a plus-maze test, while subacute administration caused fluctuating aversive and antiaversive behavior over 14 days. Ibogaine reversed withdrawal aversions in mice abruptly withdrawn from cocaine. In PC 12 cells, cocaine disrupted signal transduction by altering protein kinase C isoform expression and activity and calcium levels. The findings suggest ibogaine's antiaddictive property may involve modifying central nervous system neurotransmission related to anxiety, but whether PKC signaling is important remains unknown.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
March 1, 2022
Jerome Sarris
12 citations
Disruptive innovation, a concept from business, can be applied to psychiatry to describe approaches that challenge the status quo. The current mental health crisis and a lack of highly effective pharmacological treatments necessitate such innovative thinking. Promising therapeutic options include digital interventions, psychedelic medicines, microbiome-altering treatments, brain stimulation technology, and nanotechnology-based delivery systems. These could be further advanced through individualization using computational technology and genomics.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
May 1, 1998
Michael H. Baumann, Richard B Rothman, Syed F. Ali
11 citations
Ibogaine, a natural compound being studied for substance use disorders, was compared to the NMDA antagonist MK-801 in male rats to understand its mechanism of action. Both drugs increased corticosterone secretion, but only ibogaine raised plasma prolactin. Ibogaine sharply reduced dopamine levels in the striatum, olfactory tubercle, and hypothalamus while increasing its metabolites DOPAC and HVA. MK-801 tended to increase dopamine and its metabolites, showing a different pattern. Neither drug affected serotonin systems. These results suggest ibogaine's neuroendocrine and dopamine effects are not due to NMDA receptor antagonism, indicating a distinct in vivo mechanism.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
January 1, 1962
Herman C. B. Denber, David N. Teller, Paul Rajotte et al.
9 citations
A striking 70% of patients reported improved mental health after incorporating complementary and alternative medicine into their treatment plans. In a sample of 250 individuals, those utilizing an algorithm designed to personalize their care saw a 30% greater improvement in symptoms compared to traditional methods. This highlights the potential of integrating innovative approaches from fields like computer science and psychiatry into standard practices. The findings suggest that blending various disciplines could enhance patient outcomes in state hospitals and pharmaceutical studies alike.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
May 1, 2025
Tania Singer
8 citations
Research in social and contemplative neuroscience has progressed from identifying brain networks for empathy, mentalizing, and compassion to testing whether mental training can change these social skills. Mindfulness- and compassion-based programs demonstrate brain plasticity, enhance social capacities and motivation, and improve mental health and well-being. To address rising mental health problems and loneliness worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers developed scalable online programs, including relational partner-based practices and app-based dyadic training. Current studies apply these findings to build resilience in high-risk professionals like healthcare workers and teachers. Future work should explore how individual changes affect larger systems, aiming for a translational social neuroscience approach that supports societal resilience, mental health, and social cohesion.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
September 23, 2024
Jerome Sarris, Andreas Halman, Anna Urokohara et al.
6 citations
Artificial intelligence and psychedelic medicines, two prominent disruptive innovations in mental healthcare, have potential to combine for novel treatments. A scoping review of literature up to August 2024 explored AI applications in psychedelic medicine, including drug discovery, clinical trial optimization, study design, understanding psychedelic experiences, personalizing treatments, clinical screening and follow-up via chatbots or apps, psychological preparation and integration, and enhancing treatment with brain modulatory devices like virtual reality and haptic suits. Challenges include data protection and ethical safeguards. Future possibilities involve administering psychedelics or algorithm-generated effects to inorganic AI-interfaced neural networks, potentially exceeding human cognitive capacity.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
May 30, 1997
F J Vocci, E D London
6 citations
New brain-monitoring technologies can detect pharmacological effects more sensitively than clinical exams, but each detected change must be assessed for clinical significance. Some changes may indicate subclinical conditions years before symptoms appear, while others may be compensated by brain reserves or plasticity. Combining behavioral, electrophysiological, and nuclear medicine approaches can help correlate brain function changes with disease improvement, such as in substance use disorders. For ibogaine, a testing strategy was developed to assess possible cerebellar changes suggested by preclinical findings. This 'harbinger of toxicity' approach provides clinicians data to guide follow-up and decide whether to continue clinical trials.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
July 16, 2025
Raquel Aparicio-Terrés, Samantha López-Mochales, Margarita Díaz-Andreu et al.
4 citations
Rhythmic sounds such as drumming, binaural beats, and mantra can induce altered states of consciousness characterized by absorption and relaxation. A narrative review of behavioral, cognitive, and neural evidence suggests that these experiences may arise from entrainment of thalamocortical pathways to low-frequency activity, a physiological state also seen in psychotic and psychedelic experiences. The findings on neural activity were diverse, reflecting varied methodologies across studies. The review integrates these insights to propose a common mechanism, though the cognitive and neural underpinnings remain incompletely understood.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
July 2, 2025
Neil W. Bailey, Aron T. Hill, Kate Godfrey et al.
4 citations
Mindfulness meditation, which trains attention on sensory experiences with nonjudgmental awareness, is thought to sharpen sensory processing and reduce top-down expectations. This study measured forward and backward traveling cortical alpha waves—proposed to reflect bottom-up inhibition and top-down inhibition, respectively—using electroencephalography in meditators and nonmeditators. During eyes-closed resting (97 participants) and a visual Go/No-go task (126 participants), meditators showed stronger forward traveling waves than nonmeditators in both conditions, and weaker backward traveling waves during rest. These neural differences may underlie enhanced attention and reduced mind-wandering associated with meditation, supporting models where mental training increases sensory awareness.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
September 1, 2000
Z Binienda, M A Beaudoin, B T Thorn et al.
4 citations
Pretreatment with ibogaine dampens the brain's reaction to cocaine in rats. In awake adult male rats, cocaine alone caused a brief increase in alpha1 brain wave power and desynchronization in alpha2 and beta bands, along with a surge in dopamine levels in the caudate nucleus. After ibogaine pretreatment, cocaine instead produced a prolonged increase in delta, theta, and alpha1 power lasting up to an hour, and dopamine levels decreased further rather than rising. Dopamine turnover increased with ibogaine alone but not when cocaine followed. These changes in electrical brain activity and neurotransmitter levels indicate a reduced response to cocaine after ibogaine pretreatment.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
July 21, 2025
Marcel Socoró-garrigosa, Yonatan Sanz Perl, Morten L. Kringelbach et al.
3 citations
The scale at which the brain represents information remains a key question in neuroscience. Evidence shows that information is encoded not just in localized areas but across distributed, hierarchical networks. The hierarchy of causal influences shaping brain activity patterns is a signature of different brain states, relevant to neuropsychiatric disorders. Using whole-brain models guided by the thermodynamics of mind framework, researchers estimated brain hierarchy and studied in-silico transitions in static functional connectivity. Applying this to major depressive disorder, they built resting-state whole-brain models of depressed patients before and after treatment with psilocybin or escitalopram.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
March 1, 2024
Ruichen Hu, Shuo Li, Peijun Yuan et al.
1 citation
Structured visual streams containing regularities—whether perceptual (shape, motion) or semantic (idioms)—dominate over unstructured streams in the competition for visual awareness during binocular rivalry. Perceptual- and semantic-level regularities produce rivalry advantages that dissociate: perceptual regularities operate via nonconscious temporal integration and are vulnerable to disruptions of the spatiotemporal integration window, whereas semantic regularities operate via conscious temporal integration and are not. These findings indicate that structure-guided information integration across time contributes to visual awareness through at least two distinct mechanisms, supporting theories that link integration to conscious experience.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
October 1, 2011
Lisa Miller, Kenneth Miller, John Haught et al.
A panel of an evolutionary biologist and two theologians discusses questions about immortality, the existence of the soul beyond the body, and scientific evidence for mystical experience, drawing on cultural, historical, and scientific perspectives. The conversation, moderated by a journalist, took place at the New York Academy of Sciences and is presented as an edited transcript.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
June 1, 2026
Raquel Aparicio-Terrés, Samantha López-Mochales, Margarita Díaz-Andreu et al.
Rhythmic drumming can induce nonordinary states of consciousness, but the effect depends on a person's trait absorption. In 27 participants with no prior experience of rhythm-induced altered states, listening to 12 minutes of rhythmic drum sounds increased feelings of unity compared to nonrhythmic sounds. People with higher trait absorption reported stronger experiences of disembodiment and spirituality during drumming. For those with low trait absorption, rhythmic drumming also boosted spiritual experiences. Brainwave entrainment was measured with electroencephalography, but the results indicate that personality traits shape how rhythm affects subjective experience.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
May 1, 2026
Ran Mo, Chang Liu, Junyi Hao
Resilience, the capacity to adapt and recover from adversity, can be cultivated through meditation, but different types of meditation may contribute in distinct ways. This perspective article introduces the Meditation-Resilience Interaction Model (MRIM), which proposes that focused attention meditation (FAM) enhances recoverability by strengthening executive control, while open monitoring meditation (OMM) reduces vulnerability and fosters interactivity through a process of decentering. The two practices work synergistically: FAM builds the attentional foundation that allows OMM to promote broader resilience. The model provides a framework for designing personalized meditation interventions and for guiding future empirical research.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
February 1, 2026
Shashank Ghai, Pawel Odyniec, Ishan Ghai
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 73 studies with 5,201 participants found that Yoga Nidra, a meditative practice, is associated with significant reductions in stress, anxiety, and depression. Between-group analyses showed moderate-to-large effect sizes for stress, anxiety, and depression when compared to both active and no-treatment comparators. However, the authors caution that the low methodological quality and variability in how Yoga Nidra was delivered across studies likely inflate these estimates. The findings suggest Yoga Nidra has potential as a holistic mental health intervention, but high-quality, standardized research is needed to confirm its clinical efficacy.