The phenomenon of alien abduction has been widely reported yet remains scientifically contentious. This review synthesizes neuroscientific and psychological findings to elucidate its potential mechanisms. Neural correlates include sleep paralysis, REM intrusion, temporoparietal junction activity, caudate-putamen connectivity, serotonergic modulation (e.g., 5-HT2A receptor) & thanatosis...
Psychedelics have re-emerged as promising therapeutics for neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorders. While their beneficial effects are largely attributed to serotonin 2A (5-HT2A) receptor activation, psychedelics exhibit substantial diversity in chemical structure, receptor binding kinetics, metabolism, and duration...
Zebrafish larvae are increasingly used in behavioural pharmacology because of their translational relevance and suitability for anxiety- and stress-related studies. However, it remains unclear whether commonly used behavioural assays and molecular stress markers provide convergent evidence of anxiolytic-like drug activity. This study therefore aimed not to validate a single predictive screening...
Introduction: Contemporary psychiatry is grappling with a profound stagnation in innovation. It is primarily relying on the chronic management of symptoms through traditional daily-dose pharmacotherapy. The emergence of psychedelics and ketamine marks a significant departure from this model. It is offering rapid-acting, interventional alternatives that target the underlying neurobiological...
CureusJune 13, 2026Akemini J Udoro, Yadanar Yukyi, Ali Z Ansari et al.
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring hallucinogen known to produce alterations in perception, cognition, and autonomic function through its effects on central serotonergic pathways. Products marketed as “mushroom” formulations may contain psilocybin or related psychoactive compounds despite ambiguous labeling and limited regulatory clarity, creating diagnostic challenges for clinicians in acute...
The head-twitch response (HTR) is widely used as a preclinical assay for the hallucinogenic potential of compounds, with its utility based on 5HT 2A R activation. Here, we examine how the polypharmacological agonists lisuride and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) influence behavioral and physiological outcomes in mice to test whether the HTR reliably reflects overall psychoactivity. Lisuride...
Pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) can lead to major trauma in terms of patients' mental health, including severe postoperative depression. This study aimed to investigate the effects of supplementing patient-controlled analgesia with low-dose esketamine on postoperative depression among patients undergoing PD. Eighty patients who were scheduled for PD were randomly assigned to either the control or...
I examine more closely the question of whether and how we can voluntarily access and benefit from accessing group mind content. I argue that some of the experiences on serotonergic psychedelics can be seen in terms of unstructured access to a variety of group minds. The ego dissolution experience on psychedelics can be viwed in terms of fusion between the individual and some salient group mind.
Classic serotonergic psychedelics-such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT)-hold remarkable promise for treating neuropsychiatric disorders, yet their clinical translation is severely constrained by first-pass metabolism, erratic pharmacokinetics, unsuitable action profiles, and off-target peripheral serotonin effects. To overcome these barriers,...
Abstract Psilocybin and other serotonergic psychedelics show therapeutic promise for psychiatric disorders, yet objective neural correlates linking the acute psychedelic state to persisting psychological outcomes remain limited. Electroencephalography (EEG) microstate analysis characterizes the rapid spatiotemporal organization of large-scale brain activity, offering a millisecond-resolution...