The Neural
Rising Star
I find this thread interesting. I'd chime in with papers but I have little time to spare during this period of my life. I can however contribute to your mental workload :
Find which substance binds typically (endogenous binding) to the kappa-opioid receptors : Dynorphin.
Do some research on dynorphin and what it does when bound to k-opioid receptors, in relative concentrations, whether it is an agonist or antagonist, partial or full. Compare with Salvinorin pharmacokinetics to infer if the human behavioural functions linked with the excitation/inhibition of kappa-opioid receptors are on par with Dynorphin binding. This could be helpful.
It appears that Ketamine and Salvinorin, as dissociatives, may be contributing to a degree of multisensory disintegration (multisensory disintegration : layman term used to describe interference in multisensory integration sites, sites where signals from different sensory domains arrive for integration into a holistic sense of self). This phenomenon is also theorised to be happening during the experience in a sensory deprivation tank. Human multisensory integration sites are several (3 or 4 if I remember correctly) and one that has been researched a little is the TPJ (temporo-parietal junction). When this area is zapped (inhibited) with a magnet (TMS), subjects report a feeling of depersonalisation, that they are not in their headspace but somewhere close, and also report a sense of "other", that someone else is right there next to them. It will be interesting to see whether these multisensory integration sites feature kappa-opioid receptors. This could be one of the possible explanations on why we feel the relative reference coordinates shift from our everyday functioning.
Ultimately though, these sites could be interfered with even if they feature no k-opioid receptors, as the signal interference could be happening earlier in the feedforward loop, i.e. in sites you guys already mentioned.
Hope this post provided some useful info instead of introducing more confusion. Apologies if the latter!
Find which substance binds typically (endogenous binding) to the kappa-opioid receptors : Dynorphin.
Do some research on dynorphin and what it does when bound to k-opioid receptors, in relative concentrations, whether it is an agonist or antagonist, partial or full. Compare with Salvinorin pharmacokinetics to infer if the human behavioural functions linked with the excitation/inhibition of kappa-opioid receptors are on par with Dynorphin binding. This could be helpful.
It appears that Ketamine and Salvinorin, as dissociatives, may be contributing to a degree of multisensory disintegration (multisensory disintegration : layman term used to describe interference in multisensory integration sites, sites where signals from different sensory domains arrive for integration into a holistic sense of self). This phenomenon is also theorised to be happening during the experience in a sensory deprivation tank. Human multisensory integration sites are several (3 or 4 if I remember correctly) and one that has been researched a little is the TPJ (temporo-parietal junction). When this area is zapped (inhibited) with a magnet (TMS), subjects report a feeling of depersonalisation, that they are not in their headspace but somewhere close, and also report a sense of "other", that someone else is right there next to them. It will be interesting to see whether these multisensory integration sites feature kappa-opioid receptors. This could be one of the possible explanations on why we feel the relative reference coordinates shift from our everyday functioning.
Ultimately though, these sites could be interfered with even if they feature no k-opioid receptors, as the signal interference could be happening earlier in the feedforward loop, i.e. in sites you guys already mentioned.
Hope this post provided some useful info instead of introducing more confusion. Apologies if the latter!