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Studies on effects of shrooms on the brain

Migrated topic.
T

tele

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Here's a couple studies I found regarding the matter of how shrooms affect one's brain(I have wondered how brain processes are affected):

www.guardian.co.uk

Psychedelic drugs: more a case of 'turn off, tune in, drop out' | Johnjoe McFadden

Johnjoe McFadden: Magic mushrooms work by shutting down parts of the brain, not expanding the mind, according to new research
www.guardian.co.uk www.guardian.co.uk


Seems like at least we have some kind of answer to the question does it speed up or slow down the processes(the old hippie question)...

I thought to share this as I'm probably not the only one who's interested in the effects on the brain.
 
Interesting material, tele.

So I wonder why psilocybin would cause a decrease in traffic between different areas of the brain? As I understand things, the psilocybin (well, actually it is psilocin by the time it gets to the brain) molecule has a similar shape to the neurotransmitter serotonin. It thus activates serotonin receptors that would not normally be activated as much. Not sure how this could cause a decrease in communication between various parts of the brain, unless maybe it serves as sort of a distracting "noise"?
 
This is not realy new information. It was known long before that psychedelic´s such as DMT, mescaline and LSD, diminish brain activity in especially the neo-cortex, and often activate brain activity within the limbic system. It's not so clear though, that diminished brain-activity automatically means that your mind itself is being diminished as well, as the first article suggests.
 
polytrip said:
This is not realy new information. It was known long before that psychedelic´s such as DMT, mescaline and LSD, diminish brain activity in especially the neo-cortex, and often activate brain activity within the limbic system. It's not so clear though, that diminished brain-activity automatically means that your mind itself is being diminished as well, as the first article suggests.
Click to expand...


Poly, clarify this if I'm wrong, but by diminished brain activity you mean diminished blood flow right? Most (all?) of what I have seen has made this 'dark brain hole' hypothesis from blood flow imaging. And yeah I see how this could correlate to reduced brain activity in that region...but I don't think it's a direct 1:1 correlation.

Peace
 
joedirt said:
polytrip said:
This is not realy new information. It was known long before that psychedelic´s such as DMT, mescaline and LSD, diminish brain activity in especially the neo-cortex, and often activate brain activity within the limbic system. It's not so clear though, that diminished brain-activity automatically means that your mind itself is being diminished as well, as the first article suggests.
Click to expand...


Poly, clarify this if I'm wrong, but by diminished brain activity you mean diminished blood flow right? Most (all?) of what I have seen has made this 'dark brain hole' hypothesis from blood flow imaging. And yeah I see how this could correlate to reduced brain activity in that region...but I don't think it's a direct 1:1 correlation.

Peace
Click to expand...
That's how brain activity is measured. But it's true that it's probably just an indication of how active some regions of the brain are, instead of 100% proof.
 
Surely by deactivating a section of the brain the other sections will be able to run more efficenttly, just like disabling unnecassary processes on a computer?

Multitasking's a bitch.
 
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