Effects of Chemical Stimulation of Electrically-Induced Phosphenes on their Bandwidth, Shape, Number and Intensity
Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery – January 01, 1963
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Combining electrical brain stimulation with psychedelics like psilocybin profoundly alters perception. In one subject, this stimulation created a great number of new visual patterns, called phosphenes. These drug-induced phosphenes exhibited significantly increased intensity and broader bandwidth compared to two baseline patterns. This work, at the intersection of neuroscience and biomedical engineering, explores how chemical stimulation influences visual experiences. It offers insights for computer science models of perception and the biophysics of brain activity, advancing psychedelics and drug studies.
Abstract
The perception of patterns not resulting from viewing external objects but stimulated by cranial electrodes with pulse currents within the electroencephalographic frequency range (‘phosphenes’) has been investigated in earlier work. The experiments described in this paper were undertaken to observe in one subject effects of chemical stimulation (by mescaline, psilocybin and LSD) on electrically-induced phosphenes as to their bandwidth, shape, number and intensity. An increase of two electrically-induced ‘control’ patterns in intensity and bandwidth and the production of a great number of new phosphene patterns with large bandwidth and intensity have been observed. These new drug-induced phosphenes prevailed during simultaneous electrical and maximum chemical stimulation (Fig. 22). From the experimental results a cybernetic model of a pulse-driven phosphene resonator can be derived.