Category: Psychology

nature.com

The way we react to psilocybin seems to be connected to the glutamate system (the neuronal fast-signaling system in our brain that uses the glutamate neurotransmitter).
Analysis of data collected from 48 participants (26 in the placebo group) links positive experiences of ego dissolution to low levels of glutamate in the hippocampus.
Negative ego dissolution and increased feelings of anxiety were linked to higher levels of glutamate in the mFPC (medial prefrontal cortex).
All of this means that psilocybin directly influences the glutamate system, and those changes correspond with changes in behaviour during the psychedelic state.
These findings go beyond our neuroscientific knowledge, but they still form a necessary foundation for future clinical trials of psilocybin’s therapeutic effects.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on June 3, 2020

Study authors used GPS to track participants for up to 4 months, regularly texting them to ask about their positive and negative emotional states.
People who were the most active explorers also reported the most positive emotional states.
Later, some participants underwent MRI scans, and the results showed that the brain actively rewards us for experiencing new things and switching locations.
People feel happier when they experience different things and visit new places often, but it’s unclear whether people with less interesting experiences actually feel sadder.
What’s important, even small changes - exercising at home, walking around your neighborhood, choosing a different route to go shopping - can have a positive impact.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on May 27, 2020

New study hints that N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (known as psychedelic DMT) experiences bring positive changes to people’s lives.
2561 people with mean age of 32 years, 77% male, responded to an online survey and shared their single most memorable entity encounter after taking DMT.
The way most study participants described it is very similar - that they met a guide, spirit, alien or helper.
Even though 41% felt fear, the most prominent emotions were love, kindness and joy, and a lot of participants say they stopped being atheist after the experience.
They also rated their experiences after DMT as the most insightful lifetime experience that brought long-term positive changes and meaning to their lives.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on May 20, 2020

A professor from University of Kansas published a series of studies with one aim—to uncover why men seek help for depression so rarely.
His analyses show that, when it comes to depression, gender differences are real, and gender-specific studies might be necessary to fully understand depression.
The main conclusion is that men’s experiences with depression are much different than women’s, and these differences contribute to stigma.
To oversimplify this a bit, that stigma, along with other factors, leads to men not wanting to go therapy.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on April 27, 2020

Repeated binge drinking, the pattern of drinking that often leads to alcohol use disorders, might be caused by kappa opioid receptors in the brain.
In a lab test on mice, turning off the kappa opioid receptors decreased the mice’s need to binge drink.
What’s interesting, is that this kappa opioid receptor is actually the “anti-reward system”, which produces stress, discontent and hangovers.
This could mean that the root cause of overusing alcohol lies in the very mechanism that makes us feel bad after drinking—but, again, it’s only been tested in mice.
Study authors don’t know why this happens, and the study itself is only a small step towards understanding alcohol or substance abuse disorders.

Bulleted by Michał Słupski
on April 20, 2020

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