Abstract Psilocybin, the natural hallucinogen produced by Psilocybe (“magic”) mushrooms, holds great promise for the treatment of depression and several other mental health conditions. The final step in the psilocybin biosynthetic pathway, dimethylation of the tryptophan-derived intermediate norbaeocystin, is catalysed by PsiM. Here we present atomic resolution (0.9 Å) crystal structures of...
Psychedelics, recognized for their impact on perception, are resurging as promising treatments with rapid onset for mood and substance use disorders. Despite increasing evidence from clinical trials, questions persist about the cellular and molecular mechanisms and their precise correlation with treatment outcomes. Murine neurons and immortalized non-neural cell lines harboring overexpressed...
A central question in consciousness theories is whether one is dealing with a dichotomous (“all-or-none”) or a gradual phenomenon. In this 7T fMRI study, we investigated whether dichotomy or gradualness in fact depends on the brain region associated with perceptual awareness reports. Both male and female human subjects performed an emotion discrimination task (fear vs neutral bodies) presented...
Psychedelics are mainly from the class of psychoactive substances whose action is to produce changes in the perception, mood, cognitive behavior, and processes of a person. This psychedelic drug creates an alteration in a person’s thinking, sense of time, and emotions. Hallucinations can be a main cause for people who take psychedelics. Mainly, these psychedelic drugs have been used since...
The study of dreams has been central to understanding human (un)consciousness, cognition, and culture for centuries. Analyzing dreams quantitatively depends on labor-intensive, manual annotation of dream narratives. We automate this process through a natural language sequence-to-sequence generation framework. This paper presents the first study on character and emotion detection in the English...
Abstract As reliable facilitators of characteristically unique altered states of consciousness that are notoriously difficult to comprehend, psychedelics naturally attract a multidisciplinary scope for their research, with direct relevance to neuroscience, pharmacology, psychology, as well as philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and epistemology — disciplines united by the common inquiry into the...
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is drug of high prevalence in Aotearoa New Zealand and is the primary drug analysed by legal drug checking services. We aimed to address the gap in literature pertaining to MDMA-related harm reduction behaviour and harm experiences within the country. An online survey was used to assess the harm reduction behaviours (e.g., limiting consumption, planning...
In a double-blinded cross-over design, 30 adults (mean age = 25.57, SD = 3.74; all male) were administered racemic ketamine and compared against saline infusion as a control. Both task-driven (auditory oddball paradigm) and resting-state EEG were recorded. HOI were computed using advanced multivariate information theory tools, allowing us to quantify nonlinear statistical dependencies between...
Abstract In the historical context of a crisis in biological psychiatry, psychedelic drugs paired with psychotherapy are globally re-emerging in research clinics as a potential transdiagnostic therapy for treating mood disorders, addictions, and other forms of psychological distress. The treatments are poised to soon shift from clinical trials to widespread service delivery in places like...
Understanding consciousness is central to understanding human nature. We have competing theories of consciousness. In interdisciplinary consciousness studies most believe that consciousness can be naturalized (i.e., consciousness depends in some substantial way on processes in - or states of - the brain). For roughly two decades, proponents of almost every theory have focused on collecting...