What a Mammalian Brain Look Like On Psychedelics
You probably have some questions…
Life for a lab rat can be pretty miserable. For every experiment where they recieve rewards, there are just as many where the mammals undergo varying levels of discomfort.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, their suffering has a greater purpose — advancing science.
For rats lucky enough to find themselves in the right labs, they get to experience some mind bending sensations. Sometimes, literally.
Take the recent experiments out of Lund University. Scientists there decided to measure, with as much precision as possible, what happens to rat brains when the animals are on psychedelics — LSD and Ketamine to be exact.
Their findings can potentially have an impact on a host of therapies, artificial intelligence, even consciousness itself.
Here’s what the Lund researchers found when they gave rats psychedelic drugs, and measured electrical signals from 128 brain areas: The results show an unexpected and simultaneous synchronization among neurons in several regions of the brain.
Unexpected and simultaneous synchronization! According to the authors; “it is the first time anyone has successfully shown how individual neurons are affected…
