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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Mouse study examines the underpinnings of hallucinations [eurekalert.org]

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) [wikipedia.org].

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 [cell.com] (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.02.104) (DX [doi.org])

Original Submission