Mouse study examines the underpinnings of hallucinations
Hallucinations result in dramatic disruptions in perception and cognition, but the changes in brain activity that underlie such alterations are not well understood. In a study publishing March 26 in the journal Cell Reports, researchers looked at how a hallucinogenic drug impacts the brains of mice at the level of individual neurons. They found that visual hallucinations may be triggered by a reduction in signaling within the visual cortex, rather than an increase, and by altered timing of when the neurons fire.
In addition to helping us understand how hallucinogens affect brain function, the findings also have implications for figuring out the neurological underpinnings in disorders like schizophrenia that are characterized by hallucinations.
"You might expect visual hallucinations would result from neurons in the brain firing like crazy, or by mismatched signals. We were surprised to find that a hallucinogenic drug instead led to a reduction of activity in the visual cortex," says senior author Cris Niell, an associate professor and member of the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon.
The drug was DOI (4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxyphenylisopropylamine).
DOI is not scheduled in the United States, but it is likely that DOI would be considered an analog (of DOB), in which case, sales or possession could be prosecuted under the Federal Analogue Act. DOI is occasionally used in animal and in vitro research.[citation needed] Scheduling DOI could cause problems for medical researchers.[citation needed]
US State of Florida: DOI is a Schedule I controlled substance in the state of Florida.
A Hallucinogenic Serotonin-2A Receptor Agonist Reduces Visual Response Gain and Alters Temporal Dynamics in Mouse V1 (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.02.104) (DX)
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Thursday March 28 2019, @09:52AM (1 child)
In the Ars article[1] it written that this David Nut(real name) fellow was fired from head of Britain's chief drug advisor because he expressed that psychedelic drugs were unfairly targeted. That is right! In XXI century western institutions still repress free-thinking of science. We, the westerners really need a good look at ourselves.
The only thing we have in our favor is that at least information is mostly free and even if the bean counters are not the pride of western civilization values, the people can still know about it.
[1] article https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/lab-mice-turn-on-tune-in-to-shed-light-on-how-and-why-we-hallucinate/ [arstechnica.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday March 28 2019, @02:10PM
*David Nutt
Bookmark: http://www.ias.org.uk/uploads/pdf/news%20stories/dnutt-lancet-011110.pdf [ias.org.uk]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]