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Where does the mind “meet” the brain? While there’s no shortage of research into the effects of psychedelics, drugs like LSD still have a lot to teach us about how the brain works – and may shed light on the mysterious interface between consciousness and neural physiology, the research suggests. .
In a new study examining the effects of LSD on volunteers, scientists have found that the psychedelic allows the brain to function in ways beyond what anatomy usually dictates, by altering states of dynamic integration and of segregation in the human brain.
“LSD, a psychedelic compound, induces a profoundly altered state of consciousness,” explains leading author and neuroscientist Andrea Luppi of the University of Cambridge.
“The combination of pharmacological interventions with non-invasive brain imaging techniques such as functional MRI (fMRI) can provide insight into normal and abnormal brain functions.”
The new research is part of the study of dynamic functional connectivity – the theory that brain phenomena demonstrate states of functional connectivity that change over time, in the same way that our stream of consciousness is dynamic and always fluid.
When this happens, and the human brain is processing information, it must integrate that information into some form of amalgamated understanding – but at the same time separate the information as well, keeping the distinct sensory flows separate from each other, so that they can be processed by particular neural systems.
This distinction – the dynamics of brain integration and segregation – is something that is affected by psychedelic drugs, and with the advent of brain imaging technology, we can observe what happens when our functional connectivity regular is disturbed.
In the study, a group of 20 healthy volunteers underwent brain scans in two separate sessions, fifteen days apart. In one of the sessions, participants took a placebo before entering the fMRI scanner, while in the other window, they received an active dose of LSD.
By comparing the results of the two sessions, the researchers found that LSD detaches functional connectivity from the constraints of structural connectivity, while simultaneously altering the way the brain manages the balance between integration and segregation of information. .
“Our main finding is that the effects of LSD on brain function and subjective experience are not uniform over time,” says Luppi.
“In particular, the well-known feeling of ‘ego dissolution’ induced by LSD correlates with the reorganization of brain networks during a state of high overall integration.”
Indeed, the altered state of drug awareness could be seen as an abnormal increase in the functional complexity of the brain – with data showing times when the brain revealed mainly separate functional connectivity patterns.
In other words, the “ ego dissolution ” of a psychedelic trip could be the subjective experience of your brain increasing its segregation dynamics, decoupling the brain structure from its functioning – meaning your ability to integrate and merge separate information flows into a unified whole. becomes diminished.
“Thus, LSD appears to induce particularly complex patterns of functional connectivity (FC) by inducing additional decoupling of FC from the underlying structural connectome, precisely at those times when structural-functional coupling is already at its lowest,” explain the authors in their article. .
“Due to the effects of LSD, the brain is free to explore a variety of functional connectivity patterns that go beyond those dictated by anatomy – presumably resulting from beliefs and unusual experiences reported during the psychedelic state. “
The results are reported in NeuroImage.
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