Neuronal Network and Neurotransmitter Dynamics Underlying Psychedelic-Induced Altered States of Consciousness in Humans

http://vimeo.com/11258033

Franz X. Vollenweider will present his work using state-of the-art neuroimaging tools to explore the brain activity patterns underlying the psychological dimensions of psychedelic-induced altered states of consciousness (ASC). The results show that the three key dimensions of ASCs, Oceanic boundlessness, Anxious ego-dissolution and Visions as originally described by Dittrich (1985), relate to circumscribed activity changes in different neuronal networks. Furthermore, he will also present novel data showing that the 5-HT2A neuroreceptor in human brain and its interactions with the glutamate system in prefrontal cortex plays a key role in the mechanism of action of classic hallucinogens such as psilocybin, and will discuss the implication of this recent finding for the understanding and putative treatment of some psychiatric disorders.

Same talk. Same approach. Different location. Different questions.

http://www.btci.org/bioethics/videos/vid6.html


Screenshots:

Fantastic vid- thanks for posting it!

I like the guys use of fMRI integrated with PET and EEG and labelled glucose-inspired me thinks.

I also like is humility when he talks about what happens beyond the receptor at the the intracellular processing stage and his recognition of genetic polymorphisms in the receptors' structure. As one can imagine, these factors add a whole new dimension of complexity to these beguiling compounds effects.