Multiple variants of the sensed presence often precede mystical and religious experiences that are frequently followed by sudden, permanent changes in self-concept. The model of vectorial hemisphericity assumes that the relative metabolic activity of synaptic patterns between the cerebral hemispheres at the time of transient interhemispheric intercalation determines the affect, content, and...
This study investigates the effects of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and amphetamine on monoamine release from rat superfused brain slices in both the presence and absence of vesicular stores of transmitter. MDMA caused the release of radioactivity from slices incubated with [3H]5-hydroxytryptamine, [3H]noradrenaline or [3H]dopamine with EC50 values of 1.9 mumol/l (95% confidence limits...
Ibogaine, an indole alkaloid, has been proposed for treatment of drug addiction, yet its mechanism, site of action, and possible neurotoxicity have not been determined. Since neuronal injury is known to activate neurologlial cells, we investigated potential neurotoxic effects of this drug in rats by examining expression of specific glial markers. After treatment with ibogaine (100 mg kg-1 i.p.;...
This study aimed to ascertain a) whether morning reports of dream experience more frequently reproduce bizarre contents of night reports than nonbizarre ones and b) whether this effect depends on the rarity of bizarre contents in the dream or on their richer encoding in memory. Ten subjects were awakened in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep three times per night for 4 nonconsecutive nights and...
AbstractExtracellular single‐unit recordings were used to assess the effects of PCP and PCP‐like drugs (MK‐801 and TCP) on the burst firing of ventral tegmental A10 dopamine neurons in the rat. The effects of these noncompetitive N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists were compared to the potent and competitive NMDA antagonists CGS 19755 and (±)CPP, and to BTCP, a PCP‐derivative...
The purpose of the present study was to examine the acute and chronic effects of (+/-)3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) in pigeons responding under a delayed-matching-to-sample procedure with 0-, 3-, and 6-s delays. In the absence of drug, accuracy (percent correct responses) was inversely related to delay length. When administered pre-chronically, MDMA (0.32-5.6 mg/kg) generally...
d-Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) produced dose-dependent contractions (EC50, 17.9 +/- 2.1 nM) on isolated ovine uterine artery of late pregnancy, which were competitively antagonized by ketanserin. The maximal contraction to LSD was 51% of the 5-HT response. LSD competitively antagonized (pA2 9.21) contractions produced to 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT). The results indicate that LSD is a partial...
Eighteen right handed females reporting 6 or more dreams per week on a home dream and sleep diary (Dream Recallers: DR), and 11 reporting 1 or 0 dreams per week (Non Dream Recallers: NDR) drawn from a sample of 233 college students, were individually tested on two tasks assessing the hemispheric lateralization of visuo-constructive and verbal-semantic functions. NDR showed a significant degree...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the functional state of the cerebral cortex during Qigong meditation with flash visual evoked potentials (F-VEPs) recorded from the occipital scalp in four groups of adults. The first group included 14 subjects who had exercised in Neiyang Gong for 0.5-5.5 years. The second group was composed of 12 subjects who had practiced Neiyang Gong for only...
Theories of what it is for a mental state to be conscious must answer two questions. We must say how we're conscious of our conscious mental states. And we must explain why we seem to be conscious of them in a way that's immediate. Thomas Natsoulas (1993) distinguishes three strategies for explaining what it is for mental states to be conscious. I show that the differences among those...