Trips and neurotransmitters: Discovering principled patterns across 6850 hallucinogenic experiences.
Galen Ballentine, Samuel Freesun Friedman, Danilo Bzdok
Science Advances March 16, 2022 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl6989 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 6,850 |
| Population | Individuals who provided free-form testimonials about 27 drugs |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Psychedelics Brain chemistry Altered states |
| Citations | 66 |
| Key findings | Drug-induced changes in conscious awareness are linked to cortex-wide anatomical distributions of receptor density proxies, with each receptor-experience factor spanning between a higher-level association pole and a sensory input pole. |
Abstract
Psychedelics probably alter states of consciousness by disrupting how the higher association cortex governs bottom-up sensory signals. Individual hallucinogenic drugs are usually studied in participants in controlled laboratory settings. Here, we have explored word usage in 6850 free-form testimonials about 27 drugs through the prism of 40 neurotransmitter receptor subtypes, which were then mapped to three-dimensional coordinates in the brain via their gene transcription levels from invasive tissue probes. Despite high interindividual variability, our pattern-learning approach delineated how drug-induced changes of conscious awareness are linked to cortex-wide anatomical distributions of receptor density proxies. Each discovered receptor-experience factor spanned between a higher-level association pole and a sensory input pole, which may relate to the previously reported collapse of hierarchical order among large-scale networks. Coanalyzing many psychoactive molecules and thousands of natural language descriptions of drug experiences, our analytical framework finds the underlying semantic structure and maps it directly to the brain.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The phenomenology of near-death experiences Subjects who reported near-death experiences | 1980 | Retrospective study | n = 78 |
| Visual Phenomenology of the LSD Flashback Persons with a history of LSD use | 1983 | Observational cohort | n = 123 |
| The neurophenomenology of neutral hypnosis. Individuals of high, medium, and low hypnotizability | 2013 | Observational cohort | n = 37 |
| The Phenomenology of Acute Organic Psychosis Patients with acute organic psychosis and acute schizophrenics | 1987 | Observational cohort | n = 148 |
| EEG oscillatory states as neuro-phenomenology of consciousness as revealed from patients in vegetative and minimally conscious states. Brain-damaged patients with disorders of consciousness and healthy-conscious subjects | 2012 | Observational cohort |
Citations in the library
Cited by 34
- In vivo mapping of pharmacologically induced functional reorganization onto the human brain’s neurotransmitter landscape Science Advances June 14, 2023
- Phenomenology and content of the inhaled N, N-dimethyltryptamine (N, N-DMT) experience. Scientific Reports May 24, 2022
- More than meets the eye: The role of sensory dimensions in psychedelic brain dynamics, experience, and therapeutics. Neuropharmacology February 1, 2023
- Pharmacokinetics of N,N-dimethyltryptamine in Humans. European Journal of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics May 1, 2023
- Psilocybin analog 4-OH-DiPT enhances fear extinction and GABAergic inhibition of principal neurons in the basolateral amygdala. Neuropsychopharmacology April 1, 2024
and 29 more in the library
Cites 33
- Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 2003
- Ketamine and Ketamine Metabolite Pharmacology: Insights into Therapeutic Mechanisms Pharmacological Reviews June 26, 2018
- Effects of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy on Major Depressive Disorder JAMA Psychiatry November 4, 2020
- REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics Pharmacological Reviews June 20, 2019
- Psilocybin induces schizophrenia-like psychosis in humans via a serotonin-2 agonist action Neuroreport December 1, 1998
and 28 more in the library