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Study brain scans show surprising effects of LSD
The abuse of the drug LSD can lead to serious consequences for our health and psyche. For the first time, researchers have taken pictures of the human brain when it is under the influence of the drug LSD. The physicians explained that LSD has a potential for drug development.
Scientists at Imperial College London have now for the first time succeeded in taking pictures of our brains in an investigation when it is under the influence of LSD. The drug could be used in the future to treat mental illness. The physicians published the results of their study in the journal "Nature".
For the first time, researchers have been able to take pictures of the human brain while it is under the influence of LSD. This will allow physicians to better understand the effects of the drug and possibly use it for therapeutic purposes. (Image: designer491 / fotolia.com) LSD could be used as a therapeutic tool in the future
In the future, the psychedelic drug LSD could be used to treat mental illness. The researchers believe that LSD is useful for therapeutic purposes. Psychedelic drugs like LSD alter the normal state of the human brain, say the doctors. Brain researchers investigated the effects of this biological phenomenon on our consciousness, explains lead author Professor David Nutt of Imperial College London. The drug LSD could ultimately be used as a therapeutic tool. Neuroscientists have been waiting for such a breakthrough for 50 years, says Prof. Nutt. For the neurosciences themselves, the new findings are what the Higgs boson (Higgs particle) was for particle physics, adds the expert. Until now it was unknown how the drug produced these profound effects in our brain. It was therefore impossible to recreate the effects, says Prof. Nutt. In addition, many scientists were too scared to risk experiments with LSD and also had to overcome enormous hurdles to even perform such research.
Researchers were the first to investigate causes of LSD hallucinations
For their study, researchers scanned the brains of twenty healthy volunteers who had previously agreed on behalf of science to be injected with LSD. Thus, for the first time, physicians had the opportunity to examine the neural basis for those wild hallucinations triggered by the use of LSD, say the experts. The volunteers were tested on two different days. On one day the subjects received an injection of LSD, on the other day they received a placebo. Using three different imaging techniques, including an idle MRI, scientists measured the blood flow, brainwaves, and functional connections inside the human brain.
LSD lets regions in our brains communicate that normally do not do that
Under normal conditions, information from our eyes is processed in a part of the brain on the back of the visual cortex, says Prof. Nutt. However, when the volunteers took LSD, many additional brain areas, not just the visual cortex, were included in the visual processing. For example, brain networks involving our attention, hearing, and movement became more connected than usual, explains the professor. This created a condition that researchers call a more unified brain. Under the influence of LSD different regions in our brains communicated with each other, which usually do not do that, explains Prof. Nutt.
Ideas for therapeutic use of LSD have been around for decades
In particular, the visual cortex increases its communication with other areas of the brain, which explains the living and complex hallucinations under the influence of LSD, say the medical profession. Other scans showed that different parts of the brain, which normally represented a network, were separated under LSD influence. This then causes feelings, such as the loss of personal identity, explain the experts. This experience can sometimes also evoke religious or spiritual emotions. Robin Carhart-Harris from Imperial College London continues. Dr. Carhart-Harris became known two years ago for lawfully administering doses of LSD to human subjects as the first person in England. The drug was banned there in 1971. The idea of using LSD or Lysergsäurediethylamid for therapeutic purposes, but there are already several decades. The drug was first manufactured around the 1930's in Switzerland to treat psychiatric disorders, say the physicians.
Since 1970, there have been experiments with LSD on animals but not on human subjects
At some point, the hippie generation then discovered the hallucinogenic power of LSD and used the drug to make psychedelic experiences. The drug was therefore banned all over the world. This of course hindered further research and the study of medical applications, explain the experts. In the 1950s and '60s, thousands of people took LSD to fight their alcoholism. In 2012, a retrospective analysis of some of these old studies showed that the drug actually helped to drink less, explains Prof. Nutt. Since 1970, there have been many studies with LSD on animals, but none on human subjects.
Interesting effects of music under LSD influence
The effects on the networks in our brain could be used to treat the negative thinking patterns of depression and addictive behaviors. The world should reconsider its view on LSD, so maybe the drug could eventually be used as a drug, say doctors. Another finding of the study was that listening to music while taking LSD causes interesting changes in our brains. The combination of LSD and music alters the activity of the visual cortex, which then receives more information from an area of the brain called the Parahippocampus. The so-called Parahippocampus affects our memory and mental images. The more influence he takes on our visual cortex, the more complex the visions people experience, explain the scientists.
In the future, a powerful therapeutic combination with LSD should be developed
This is the first time we have experienced the interaction of a psychedelic connection and music with the brain, says graduate student Mendel Kaelen of Imperial College London. An important focus for future research is how we can leverage the insights gained from current research to develop more effective therapeutic approaches to treating depression. Listening to music under the influence of LSD can certainly be a powerful therapeutic combination if it is provided in the right way, the expert adds. (As)