Neural and subjective effects of inhaled DMT in natural settings

Abstract Background N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a short acting psychedelic tryptamine found naturally in many plants and animals. Few studies to date addressed the neural and psychological effects of DMT alone, either administered intravenously or inhaled in freebase form, and none conducted in natural settings.

Aims: Our primary aim was to study the acute effects of inhaled DMT in natural settings, focusing on questions tuned to the advantages of conducting field research, including the effects of contextual factors (i.e. “set” and “setting”), the possibility of studying a comparatively large number of subjects, and the relaxed mental state of participants consuming DMT in familiar and comfortable settings.

Methods: We combined state-of-the-art wireless electroencephalography (EEG) with psychometric questionnaires to study the neural and subjective effects of naturalistic DMT use in 35 healthy and experienced participants.

Results: We observed that DMT significantly decreased the power of alpha (8-12 Hz) oscillations throughout all scalp locations, while simultaneously increasing power of delta (1-4 Hz) and gamma (30-40 Hz) oscillations. Gamma power increases correlated with subjective reports indicative of mystical-type experiences. DMT also increased/decreased global synchrony and metastability in the gamma/alpha band, and resulted in widespread increases in signal complexity.

Conclusions: Our results are consistent with previous studies of psychedelic action in the human brain, while at the same time suggesting potential EEG markers of mystical-type experiences in natural settings, thus highlighting the importance of investigating these compounds in the contexts where they are naturally consumed.