Abstract The Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW) hypothesis states that the visual percept is available to conscious awareness only if recurrent long-distance interactions among distributed brain regions activate neural circuitry extending from posterior regions to prefrontal regions above a certain excitation threshold. To directly test this hypothesis, we trained human participants to increase...
N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is distinct among classic serotonergic psychedelics because of its short-lasting effects when administered intravenously. Despite growing interest in the experimental and therapeutic use of intravenous DMT, data are lacking on its clinical pharmacology. We conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial in 27 healthy participants to test...
Psilocybin, a naturally occurring hallucinogenic component of magic mushrooms, has significant psychoactive effects in both humans and rodents. But the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Blood-oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a useful tool in many preclinical and clinical trials to investigate psilocybin-induced changes of brain...
Objective: This study compared two mechanisms by which mindfulness may reduce hazardous drinking: effortful control and craving, "top-down" and "bottom-up" processes, respectively. These relationships were compared in a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial of mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) versus relapse prevention (RP) treatments to explore if they differed based on...
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is currently being investigated as an adjunctive treatment to therapy for posttraumatic stress and other anxiety related disorders in clinical trials. Within the next few years MDMA-assisted therapy is projected for approval by regulatory authorities. MDMA's primary mechanism of action includes modulation of monoamine signaling by increasing release and...
Unprecedented advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) have given rise to ethical questions about how to recognize and respect autonomy and a sense of agency of the personhood when those capacities are themselves disordered, as they typically are in patients with DoC. At the intersection of these questions rests the distinction between...
Clinically, and legally, death is considered a well-defined state of the organism characterized, at least, by a complete and irreversible cessation of brain activities and functions. According to this pragmatic approach, the moment of death is implicitly represented by a discrete event from which all cerebral processes abruptly cease. However, a growing body of experimental and clinical...
The dissociative anesthetic ketamine regulates cortical activity in a dose-dependent manner. Subanesthetic-dose ketamine has paradoxical excitatory effects which is proposed to facilitate brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) (a ligand of tropomyosin receptor kinase B, TrkB) signaling, and activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2). Previous data suggests that ketamine,...
The purpose of this review article is to give a summary of the literature on the use of psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, and MDMA, in the treatment of various mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance use disorders. This review's main goal is to highlight recent human studies on the use of particular psychedelic drugs, like psilocybin, LSD,...