Broadband cortical desynchronization underlies the human psychedelic state

Muthukumaraswamy, Suresh Daniel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7042-3920, Carhart-Harris, Robin L., Moran, Rosalyn J., Brookes, Matthew, Williams, Tim M., Errtizoe, David, Sessa, Ben, Papadopolous, Andreas, Bostridge, Mark, Singh, Krish Devi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3094-2475, Fielding, Amanda, Friston, Karl J. and Nutt, David J. 2013. Broadband cortical desynchronization underlies the human psychedelic state. Journal of Neuroscience 33 (38) , pp. 15171-15183. 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2063-13.2013

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Abstract

Psychedelic drugs produce profound changes in consciousness, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms for this remain unclear. Spontaneous and induced oscillatory activity was recorded in healthy human participants with magnetoencephalography after intravenous infusion of psilocybin—prodrug of the nonselective serotonin 2A receptor agonist and classic psychedelic psilocin. Psilocybin reduced spontaneous cortical oscillatory power from 1 to 50 Hz in posterior association cortices, and from 8 to 100 Hz in frontal association cortices. Large decreases in oscillatory power were seen in areas of the default-mode network. Independent component analysis was used to identify a number of resting-state networks, and activity in these was similarly decreased after psilocybin. Psilocybin had no effect on low-level visually induced and motor-induced gamma-band oscillations, suggesting that some basic elements of oscillatory brain activity are relatively preserved during the psychedelic experience. Dynamic causal modeling revealed that posterior cingulate cortex desynchronization can be explained by increased excitability of deep-layer pyramidal neurons, which are known to be rich in 5-HT2A receptors. These findings suggest that the subjective effects of psychedelics result from a desynchronization of ongoing oscillatory rhythms in the cortex, likely triggered by 5-HT2A receptor-mediated excitation of deep pyramidal cells.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) Psychology Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute (NMHRI)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Publisher:	Society for Neuroscience
ISSN:	0270-6474
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	03 May 2023 23:44
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/51211

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