PsilocybinPsilocybin, derived from mushrooms belonging to the genus Psilocybe, and psilocin, its active metabolite, are indolamines.Recent studies have shown that psilocybin has effects on brain functional connectivity.14 Its effects include reducing negative affect and amygdala response to emotional faces at 1 week, with enduring changes in resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) at 1...
Over the past 50 years, ketamine has solidified its position in both human and veterinary medicine as an important anesthetic with many uses. More recently, ketamine has been studied and used for several new indications, ranging from chronic pain to drug addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. The discovery of the rapid-acting antidepressant effects of ketamine has resulted in a surge of...
Frontiers in Neuroscience2021Ricardo Augusto De Melo Reis, Alinny Rosendo Isaac, Hércules Rezende Freitas et al.
The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is an important brain modulatory network. ECS regulates brain homeostasis throughout development, from progenitor fate decision to neuro- and gliogenesis, synaptogenesis, brain plasticity and circuit repair, up to learning, memory, fear, protection, and death. It is a major player in the hypothalamic-peripheral system-adipose tissue in the regulation of food...
2021Andrés Eduardo Nieto-Vallejo, O. Ramírez-Pérez, Luis Eduardo Ballesteros-Arroyave et al.
Meditation is a form of mental training that has therapeutic potential and cognitive benefits that may enhance attention, mental well-being, and neuroplasticity. However, the learning process is not easy because meditators do not receive immediate feedback that lets them know if they are correctly doing the activity. EEG Neurofeedback training is one of the techniques to train brain...
This paper reports distinct spatio-spectral properties of Zen-meditation EEG (electroencephalograph), compared with resting EEG, by implementing unsupervised machine learning scheme in clustering the brain mappings of centroid frequency (BMFc). Zen practitioners simultaneously concentrate on the third ventricle, hypothalamus and corpora quadrigemina touniversalize all brain neurons to construct...
The psychedelic alkaloid ibogaine has anti-addictive properties in both humans and animals1. Unlike most medications for the treatment of substance use disorders, anecdotal reports suggest that ibogaine has the potential to treat addiction to various substances, including opiates, alcohol and psychostimulants. The effects of ibogaine-like those of other psychedelic compounds-are long-lasting2,...
OBJECTIVES: Our previous study showed that long-term practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) had around 7% larger grey matter volume (GMV) in the whole brain compared with healthy controls; however, when testing individual regions, only 5 small brain areas were statistically different between groups. Under the hypothesis that those results were statistically conservative, with the same...
Oxidative stress, mental and mood disorders, premature ageing, cognitive impairments, learning disabilities are just some of the emerging threats of the 21st century. The next generation of educators, students, business leaders, employees, therapists, and parents are required to adapt in the era of rapid change and climate change developing new skills as well as adopting daily sustainable...
Ketamine (KET) is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist with rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects, but how the drug shows its sustained effects is still a matter of controversy. The objectives were to evaluate the mechanisms for KET rapid (30 min) and long-lasting (15 and 30 days after) antidepressant effects in mice. A single dose of KET (2, 5, or 10 mg/kg, po) was administered to...
Psychedelics represent one of the most promising classes of experimental medicines for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders due to their ability to promote neural plasticity and produce both rapid and sustained therapeutic effects following a single administration. Conventional wisdom holds that peak mystical experiences induced by psychedelics are a critical component of their...