Carmody
4th March 2012, 17:32
Your brain on 'shrooms: fMRI elucidates neural correlates of psilocybin psychedelic state
http://s.ph-cdn.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2012/carhart-harrisfigure2.jpg
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/early/2012/01/18/bjp.bp.111.103309.abstract
Psychedelic substances have long been used for healing, ceremonial, or mind-altering subjective experiences due to compounds that, when ingested or inhaled, generate hallucinations, perceptual distortions, or altered states of awareness. Of these, the psychedelic substance psilocybin, the prodrug (a precursor of a drug that must in vivo chemical conversion by metabolic processes before becoming an active pharmacological agent) of psilocin (4-hydroxy-dimethyltryptamine) and the key hallucinogen found in so-called magic mushrooms, is widely used not only in healing ceremonies, but, more recently, in psychotherapy as well – but little has been known about its specific activity in the brain.
Recently, however, scientists in the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit at Imperial College London used complementary blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional MRI, or fMRI, in conjunction with a technique for imaging the transition from normal waking consciousness to the psychedelic state. The study found decreased blood flow and BOLD in the thalamus, anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, and medial prefrontal cortex. The researchers concluded that the surprising results strongly suggest that the subjective effects of psychedelic drugs are caused by decreased activity and connectivity in the brain’s key connector hubs, enabling a state of unconstrained cognition.
Lead researcher Dr. Robin L. Carhart-Harris, working in the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit created by Prof. David J. Nutt, recounts the team’s main challenges in establishing an fMRI methodology that would be specific enough to highly correlate neurophysiological activity with the neuronal presence or absence of psilocybin. “There were a number of considerations,” Carhart-Harris tells Medical Xpress. “In terms of experimental design, we had to determine the precise dose and delivery protocol that would be appropriate for obtaining clear fMRI results. “For example,” he explains, “we had to consider temporal dynamics: If the drug was administered orally, the protracted period of time between ingestion, metabolism, and crossing of the blood-brain barrier would fall outside of the short scanning window needed to capture induced brain activity.” They therefore had to rely on intravenous administration.
“Another issue,” Carhart-Harris adds, “was methodological – specifically, isolating any placebo effect derived from changes not due to the injection itself, such as anticipatory anxiety.” The team also had to measure physiological parameters, including breathing and heart rate, in order to use these signals as weighting factors, correlate with baseline levels and remove them as a possible explanation of any observed brain changes.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-brain-shrooms-fmri-elucidates-neural.html
Further:
Carhart-Harris is also interested in the effects of psilocybin on memory. “When subjects are in the scanner,” he illustrates, “and are shown personal memory cues, then asked to close their eyes and remember the emotions at the time of the original event, the recalled emotions are more vivid – indicating elevated brain activation – when under the effects of psilocybin.” Moreover, Carhart-Harris notes that when administered psilocybin when undergoing psychotherapy, there is an increased incidence of sudden personal insights. He speculates that this suggests that psilocybin-induced visual changes indicate that the visual pathways are more sensitive to signals from the hippocampus, which is involved in memory, when under psilocybin.
In addition to depression, Carhart-Harris observes, there are other research and applications that might benefit from the team’s findings. “Those suffering from cluster headaches,” he notes, “report excruciating pain that is difficult to treat, sometimes describing it as worse than the pain childbirth. During such headaches, they show an increase in hypothalamic activity to date has only been ameliorated by deep brain stimulation. However,” he concludes, “when administered psilocybin, they display a decrease in hypothalamic activity and a corresponding suspension of cluster headaches.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Personally, instead of drugs to do this, I used meditation as a form of self hypnosis and kundalini exercises. This, as a daily fare, for a good 18 months, on a daily basis, with no outside world mind numbing and thought blocking aspects of what we call 'the normal world'.
For the ego attachment to the normal world as a form of repetitive actions and conditioning of the mind into 'hunting and expecting/anticipating' (the same way we can muse and self-talk about a situation we need to clear up-we obsess) of those worlds, spaces, integrations and actions ......is what suppresses internal and personal growth.
YES, you have to get away from modern fast paced world in order to have your mind grow and to have your mind correct it's self and your given issues. Fomative and thus cogition issues which you all (and I) have, however you may wish to ignore them, by -or through- externalization and self distraction ---by and through the ego system of the body's interaction. Yes, you have to separate the self from the world. In the old days, we went into caves or sat under the bodhi tree and meditated until some bits of clarity came.
In the modern world, you must step away from modern stresses and any form of contact with it, form quite some time. Or environment has changed.... but the time frames of isolation and rumination for mental clarity in the human being itself, has not changed.
Addiction cycles are 21 days. To even begin to get a glimpse of mental clarity, you have to separate yourself from the crap noise of the 'western' or 'modern' world for a good six months with exactly NO external stimuli, outside of the relaxed gentle stimuli of your mind trying to dig into itself. The ego fears big changes in the neurological connectivity and the neurological chemical balance/stressing of the mind, as it fears any given large change.
Since the change you are looking for is at the deepest levels, the 'mind' or ego structures..they/it fear those situations that might bring that about.....at least as much as death itself. Thus the body fights back against attempts to clear the self, via projections and complications that really aren't there. (this ties back to the cognition thing spoken of, regarding 'shooms and visual centers/cognition)
Which is a large part of how the masses of the world ended up being hooked on an overly busy world constructed entirely upon and out of mental and emotional garbage. (projections tied to emotions-as representations of reality)
Like a robotic/motorized toy car with a limited instruction set, having driven itself into an inescapable corner unless a reset takes place.....humanity has painted itself (with help from those with evil intent) into a corner of over exposure to external stimuli ----and needs to reset itself.
* * *
While I appreciate the connection to some basic form of personal salvation, the world of self cognition and self repair that this article brings to the fore...... a bag of 'shrooms and a week in the the sun in the tropics.... is about as far from a true reality check as you can get. It's not even a beginning, it's just the wisp of smell from a wisp of smoke, it is not the meal or the sustenance. It is only a directional indicator.
Due to the right or correct drugs being capable of opening the mind into a state of re-wiring itself for greater intelligent and cognition, these drugs are banned, whereas the one thing that self-pleasures through intentional mental/physical destruction, high levels of alchohol consumption..this is why alcohol is legal. Properly done meditation will actually make a person more intelligent, better balanced and thus more effective in being a human being who understands the true state of the world and reality function/existence.
If the PTB could outlaw mediation as a drug, and a crime.....they would.
However, that would show their hand too much, so they back off and then simply destroy all civilizations and societies this world, all of that type that from a basis of self analysis as part of a life path.
http://s.ph-cdn.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2012/carhart-harrisfigure2.jpg
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/early/2012/01/18/bjp.bp.111.103309.abstract
Psychedelic substances have long been used for healing, ceremonial, or mind-altering subjective experiences due to compounds that, when ingested or inhaled, generate hallucinations, perceptual distortions, or altered states of awareness. Of these, the psychedelic substance psilocybin, the prodrug (a precursor of a drug that must in vivo chemical conversion by metabolic processes before becoming an active pharmacological agent) of psilocin (4-hydroxy-dimethyltryptamine) and the key hallucinogen found in so-called magic mushrooms, is widely used not only in healing ceremonies, but, more recently, in psychotherapy as well – but little has been known about its specific activity in the brain.
Recently, however, scientists in the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit at Imperial College London used complementary blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional MRI, or fMRI, in conjunction with a technique for imaging the transition from normal waking consciousness to the psychedelic state. The study found decreased blood flow and BOLD in the thalamus, anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, and medial prefrontal cortex. The researchers concluded that the surprising results strongly suggest that the subjective effects of psychedelic drugs are caused by decreased activity and connectivity in the brain’s key connector hubs, enabling a state of unconstrained cognition.
Lead researcher Dr. Robin L. Carhart-Harris, working in the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit created by Prof. David J. Nutt, recounts the team’s main challenges in establishing an fMRI methodology that would be specific enough to highly correlate neurophysiological activity with the neuronal presence or absence of psilocybin. “There were a number of considerations,” Carhart-Harris tells Medical Xpress. “In terms of experimental design, we had to determine the precise dose and delivery protocol that would be appropriate for obtaining clear fMRI results. “For example,” he explains, “we had to consider temporal dynamics: If the drug was administered orally, the protracted period of time between ingestion, metabolism, and crossing of the blood-brain barrier would fall outside of the short scanning window needed to capture induced brain activity.” They therefore had to rely on intravenous administration.
“Another issue,” Carhart-Harris adds, “was methodological – specifically, isolating any placebo effect derived from changes not due to the injection itself, such as anticipatory anxiety.” The team also had to measure physiological parameters, including breathing and heart rate, in order to use these signals as weighting factors, correlate with baseline levels and remove them as a possible explanation of any observed brain changes.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-brain-shrooms-fmri-elucidates-neural.html
Further:
Carhart-Harris is also interested in the effects of psilocybin on memory. “When subjects are in the scanner,” he illustrates, “and are shown personal memory cues, then asked to close their eyes and remember the emotions at the time of the original event, the recalled emotions are more vivid – indicating elevated brain activation – when under the effects of psilocybin.” Moreover, Carhart-Harris notes that when administered psilocybin when undergoing psychotherapy, there is an increased incidence of sudden personal insights. He speculates that this suggests that psilocybin-induced visual changes indicate that the visual pathways are more sensitive to signals from the hippocampus, which is involved in memory, when under psilocybin.
In addition to depression, Carhart-Harris observes, there are other research and applications that might benefit from the team’s findings. “Those suffering from cluster headaches,” he notes, “report excruciating pain that is difficult to treat, sometimes describing it as worse than the pain childbirth. During such headaches, they show an increase in hypothalamic activity to date has only been ameliorated by deep brain stimulation. However,” he concludes, “when administered psilocybin, they display a decrease in hypothalamic activity and a corresponding suspension of cluster headaches.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Personally, instead of drugs to do this, I used meditation as a form of self hypnosis and kundalini exercises. This, as a daily fare, for a good 18 months, on a daily basis, with no outside world mind numbing and thought blocking aspects of what we call 'the normal world'.
For the ego attachment to the normal world as a form of repetitive actions and conditioning of the mind into 'hunting and expecting/anticipating' (the same way we can muse and self-talk about a situation we need to clear up-we obsess) of those worlds, spaces, integrations and actions ......is what suppresses internal and personal growth.
YES, you have to get away from modern fast paced world in order to have your mind grow and to have your mind correct it's self and your given issues. Fomative and thus cogition issues which you all (and I) have, however you may wish to ignore them, by -or through- externalization and self distraction ---by and through the ego system of the body's interaction. Yes, you have to separate the self from the world. In the old days, we went into caves or sat under the bodhi tree and meditated until some bits of clarity came.
In the modern world, you must step away from modern stresses and any form of contact with it, form quite some time. Or environment has changed.... but the time frames of isolation and rumination for mental clarity in the human being itself, has not changed.
Addiction cycles are 21 days. To even begin to get a glimpse of mental clarity, you have to separate yourself from the crap noise of the 'western' or 'modern' world for a good six months with exactly NO external stimuli, outside of the relaxed gentle stimuli of your mind trying to dig into itself. The ego fears big changes in the neurological connectivity and the neurological chemical balance/stressing of the mind, as it fears any given large change.
Since the change you are looking for is at the deepest levels, the 'mind' or ego structures..they/it fear those situations that might bring that about.....at least as much as death itself. Thus the body fights back against attempts to clear the self, via projections and complications that really aren't there. (this ties back to the cognition thing spoken of, regarding 'shooms and visual centers/cognition)
Which is a large part of how the masses of the world ended up being hooked on an overly busy world constructed entirely upon and out of mental and emotional garbage. (projections tied to emotions-as representations of reality)
Like a robotic/motorized toy car with a limited instruction set, having driven itself into an inescapable corner unless a reset takes place.....humanity has painted itself (with help from those with evil intent) into a corner of over exposure to external stimuli ----and needs to reset itself.
* * *
While I appreciate the connection to some basic form of personal salvation, the world of self cognition and self repair that this article brings to the fore...... a bag of 'shrooms and a week in the the sun in the tropics.... is about as far from a true reality check as you can get. It's not even a beginning, it's just the wisp of smell from a wisp of smoke, it is not the meal or the sustenance. It is only a directional indicator.
Due to the right or correct drugs being capable of opening the mind into a state of re-wiring itself for greater intelligent and cognition, these drugs are banned, whereas the one thing that self-pleasures through intentional mental/physical destruction, high levels of alchohol consumption..this is why alcohol is legal. Properly done meditation will actually make a person more intelligent, better balanced and thus more effective in being a human being who understands the true state of the world and reality function/existence.
If the PTB could outlaw mediation as a drug, and a crime.....they would.
However, that would show their hand too much, so they back off and then simply destroy all civilizations and societies this world, all of that type that from a basis of self analysis as part of a life path.