Psilocybin

Scientific American's Science Quickly examines an early pilot trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for people with long-term anorexia. The episode carefully discusses reported changes in symptoms and motivation, possible neuroplasticity mechanisms, the small uncontrolled sample and the need for larger randomized studies and clinical safeguards.

Psychedelics like psilocybin and ketamine have shown great potential in treating psychiatric disorders, often producing long-lasting effects after a single dose, yet their underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. Since one of the most consistent features of the psychedelic experience is the alteration in perception, this study aimed to investigate how acute doses of psychedelics influence perceptual integration. We used a free-response perceptual integration task in mice, alongside brain-wide mapping of drug-responsive populations using activity-dependent gene expression and calc

Psychedelics like psilocybin have shown rapid and long-lasting efficacy on depressive and anxiety symptoms. Other psychedelics with shorter half-lives, such as DMT and 5-MeO-DMT, have also shown promising preliminary outcomes in major depression, making them interesting candidates for clinical practice. Despite several promising clinical studies, the influence of the context on therapeutic responses or adverse effects remains poorly documented. To address this, we conducted preclinical studies evaluating the psychopharmacological profile of 5-MeO-DMT in contexts previously validated in mice as

…Psilocybin and ketamine induce antidepressant effects which last for days or weeks after a single dose, yet their pharmacology is distinct. Psilocybin is a classical psychedelic which acts via 5-HT2A receptor agonism, and ketamine is a NMDA receptor antagonist with dissociative hallucinatory properties. Our goal was to increase our understanding of acute drug effects in mice. We treated wildtype mice with psilocybin (1 mg/kg, i.p.) or ketamine (30 mg/kg, i.p.) and analyzed their behavior in

…5-HT2A receptor (5-HT2AR), such as psilocybin, to patients with MDD induce fast antidepressant effects, which persist up to five weeks. However,

…reported that psychedelics LSD and psilocybin, also bind to TrkB with higher affinity than antidepressants. In this study, we investigated whether psychedelics and classical antidepressants promote TrkB dimerization and neurotrophic signalling in a differential manner. The effects of psychedelics on the TrkB dimerization dynamics and neurotrophic signalling associated with plasticity were studied treating N2a c

Current therapies for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) exhibit significant variability in effectiveness, resulting in high relapse rates. Addressing this challenge requires a precision medicine approach incorporating biomarkers responsive to novel treatments. A promising approach involves bioelectronic devices utilising neuroelectric signatures of impaired prefrontal function, a key feature in AUD resulting in diminished inhibitory control over compulsive behaviour and increased vulnerability to relapse. Thus, we reason that event-related potentials and neural oscillations are valuable biomarkers fo

…Psilocybin, a non-selective 5-HT2AR agonist, has been found to alleviate depressive mood in individuals with treatment resistant depression (Carhart-Harris et al., 2017) Ketamine exhibits robust and enduring antidepressant properties both in patients and preclinical models. (Krystal et al., 2013). Sleep patterns are often affected by depressive disorders, making wireless EEG a valuable too

…Psilocybin, a non-selective 5-HT2AR agonist, has been found to alleviate depressive mood in individuals with treatment resistant depression (Carhart-Harris et al., 2017) Ketamine exhibits robust and enduring antidepressant properties both in patients and preclinical models. (Krystal et al., 2013). Sleep patterns are often affected by depressive disorders, making wireless EEG a valuable

…Recently, psilocybin has emerged as a promising drug for major depressive disorder (MDD) and potentially PTSD. However, its mechanism of action and how it could

…proprietary formulation of synthetic psilocybin) modulates negative affective biases in a rat model. Based on our current behavioural data, the mechanism is hypothesised to depend on psilocin, the active metabolite of psilocybin, acting as a partial agonist at both 5-HT2A and 5-HT1A receptors and altering neuronal activity, particularly in circuits which regulate affect and include the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). In the present study, we investigated effects of acute psilocin on stimulus-evoked excitatory postsynaptic

…serotonin receptor, such as LSD or psilocybin, induce rapid and lasting antidepressant effects. 5-HT2A receptor activation is known to promote synaptic plasticity, but the molec

The discovery of LSD launched a new era of psychedelic research. The number of clinical trials is consistently increasing since psychedelics' sustained therapeutic effects seem to be promising in the reduction of symptoms of various neuropsychiatric disorders. In humans, the acute neuronal effect of psychedelics is often measured by fMRI and EEG signals and their behaviour through subjective questionnaires. In rodents, behavioural testing is much more precise. However, fMRI is only possible in anaesthetized animals which poses its own limitations. Researchers have circumvented this challenge

The study of altered states of consciousness has long had the potential to provide important insight into the nature of consciousness. In recent years there has been a resurgence of research and public interest in atypical or altered states of consciousness. These have focused both on conditions in which consciousness is considered to be impaired due to brain trauma or enhanced in some way through mediation practices or ingestion of psychedelics. The talk will begin with a brief overview of recent scientific approaches to understanding these different types of altered consciousness. The remain