Background/Objectives: Esketamine-related dissociation is a transient, pharmacologically induced altered state that differs from the trait-like pathological dissociation typically observed in trauma-related conditions. While most studies have quantified these effects using the Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS), patients' subjective phenomenology and meaning-making remain...
Psychedelic compounds, particularly psilocybin, have demonstrated remarkable therapeutic potential for mental health disorders through mechanisms involving structural neural plasticity. This comprehensive review examines recent breakthrough research revealing how psilocybin triggers activity-dependent rewiring of large-scale cortical networks. Using monosynaptic rabies viral tracing,...
Psilocin, a naturally occurring hallucinogenic component of magic mushrooms, exerts notable psychoactive effects in both humans and rodents. However, the underlying mechanisms remain not fully understood. Blood-oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a valuable tool in many preclinical and clinical trials for investigating changes of brain activity and...
Background: Ketamine and magnesium sulfate are commonly used perioperatively to prevent shivering, a frequent and clinically relevant complication of spinal and general anesthesia. Although their hypothermic effects are well documented, the neurotransmitter mechanisms underlying these effects remain insufficiently understood. This study examines whether serotonergic, adrenergic (α2), and...
Employing a spectral analysis framework based on Chaos Game Representation (CGR), we investigated the multimer-based dynamics of EEG microstates across broadband and canonical frequency bands during reversible unconsciousness (anesthesia and sleep). Robust periodic components consistently emerged within microstate sequences across theta, alpha, beta, and gamma bands, persisting across distinct...
BACKGROUND: Focused attention (FA) meditation has been proposed to enhance decision quality by mitigating cognitive biases. However, its influence on probability weighting bias (PWB), the tendency to misperceive objective probabilities, remains unexplored. Furthermore, emotional trade-off difficulty (ETOD), defined as the affective strain of making complex trade offs, may influence this...
How Should We Look for the Self?There is a long tradition in philosophy for asking about the nature and metaphysics of the self.David Hume famously observed that "when I enter most intimately into what I call myself . . .I never catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception."Most would likely agree that the self is not easy to catch in...
There is a growing body of literature on the therapeutic applications of psychedelics, particularly within Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP). PAP is strongly shaped by set and setting, both of which are influenced by cultural factors. To explore Chinese American mental health providers’ attitudes toward psychedelics and the effect of educational training, we conducted an online survey...
Interest in psychoactive substances, including psychedelics, is rapidly expanding in medical, academic, and other popular fields. Despite the classifications established within the psychopharmacological scientific community, certain plants, animals, and fungi, as well as the substances obtained from them, have been misclassified by both the media and academic circles. This opinion piece aims to...
(R,S)-ketamine (ketamine) induces rapid and sustained antidepressant-relevant neuroplastogenic effects in vivo. The metabolite (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine (2R6R) forms shortly after the administration of ketamine, and independently elicits rapid plasticity and sustained metaplasticity. Ketamine's therapeutic actions appear to result from distinct, time-sensitive plasticity phases, though the...