A new study shows that the use of psilocybin, a compound found in the widely known “magic mushrooms,” initiates a pattern of hyperconnectivity in the brain related to ego-modifying effects and the feeling of oceanic vastness. The findings, which appear in Biological psychiatry: cognitive neuroscience and neuroimagingpublished by Elsevier, helps explain the so-called mystical experiences that people report during the use of psychedelics and are relevant to psychotherapeutic applications of psychedelic drugs to treat psychiatric disorders such as depression.
The concept of oceanic vastness refers to a feeling of oneness, happiness, insight, and spiritual experience often associated with psychedelic sessions.
In one of the first brain imaging studies in psychedelic research, researchers found a specific association between the experiential psychedelic state and dynamic whole-brain connectivity changes. While previous research has shown increases in static global brain connectivity under psychedelic use, the current study shows that this state of hyperconnectivity is dynamic (changing over time) and its rate of transition matches the sensation of oceanic vastness, a distinctive dimension of the psychedelic state.
Lead researcher Johannes G. Ramaekers, PhD, Department of Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, says: “Psilocybin has been one of the most studied psychedelics, possibly due to its potential contribution in treatment of different disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, death-related anxiety, depression, treatment-resistant depression, major depressive disorder, terminal anxiety associated with cancer, demoralization, smoking, and alcohol and tobacco addiction What was not understood. “It’s entirely what brain activity is associated with these deep experiences.”
Psilocybin generates profound alterations both at the cerebral and experiential levels. The brain’s tendency to enter a pattern of hyperconnected hyperarousal under psilocybin represents the potential to consider variant mental perspectives. The new study’s findings illuminate the intricate interplay between brain dynamics and subjective experience under psilocybin, providing insights into the neurophysiology and neuroexperimental qualities of the psychedelic state.
Dr. Ramaekers adds: “Taken together, the dynamic and averaged connectivity analyzes suggest that psilocybin alters brain function such that the overall neurobiological pattern becomes functionally more connected, more fluid, and less modular.”
Previously acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were analyzed for two groups of people; One group of 22 people received a single dose of psilocybin and the other 27 participants received a placebo. During the drug’s peak effects, participants receiving psilocybin reported substantial phenomenological changes compared to placebo. Furthermore, the analysis of brain connectivity showed that a pattern characterized by global connectivity from one region to another was reappearing during the acquisition time in the psilocybin group, which could explain the variants of mental associations experienced by the participants.
Furthermore, this hyperconnected pattern was linked to oceanic unity and vastness, indicating an important mapping between brain dynamics and subjective experience, pointing toward the “egotropic effects” (vs. hallucinergic) of the drug.
Larry Fort, PhD candidate and co-author of the paper, from the University of Liège, emphasizes: “Psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin are often called hallucinogens both scientifically and colloquially. As such, we expected that the hallucinatory dimensions of the experience would correlate higher with However, the hyperconnected pattern of psilocybin had a stronger, but weaker, correlation with this pattern than ego-modifying experiences. This led us to formulate the term “egotropic” to draw attention to these ego-modifying effects. ego as important, perhaps even more so than their hallucinogenic counterparts.”
Editor-in-Chief of Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Cameron S. Carter, MD, University of California Irvine, comments: “This study uses readily available resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging acquired after psilocybin ingestion to provide new insights into the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms. The subjective and clinical effects of the drug lay the foundation for future studies using other psychedelic agents to examine whether the dynamic connectivity effects reflect a general mechanism for the therapeutic effects of these compounds.
Principal investigator Athena Demertzi, PhD, Physiology of Cognition, GIGA-CRC In Vivo Imaging Center, University of Liège, adds: “We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the brain pattern of hyperconnected regions was further characterized by lower overall signal amplitude. , which functions as an indicator of increased cortical arousal. So far, this is the first time that an approximation of arousal levels using fMRI has been attempted in psychedelic research. This could be an important correlation as we move towards a full characterization. of brain states under psychedelics.
She concludes: “Given the resurgence of research on the psychotherapeutic applications of psychedelic drugs, our results are relevant to understanding how subjective experience under psychedelics influences beneficial clinical outcomes. Is the effect driven by ego dissolution? By hallucinations? As such, our work exemplifies how the strong interrelation between the egotropic effects of psilocybin at moderate doses and its hyperconnected brain pattern can inform clinical focus on specific aspects of phenomenology, such as ego dissolutions. , healthcare professionals can learn how to best design psychedelic therapy sessions to produce the best clinical outcomes.”