Department of Analytical Toxicology, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, PR China.
2 papers in the library · 1 citation · publishing 2025-2026
Ketamine, originally developed as an anesthetic, is now being studied for depression treatment, but its addictive potential is a growing concern. This research used a mouse model of ketamine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) to investigate changes in the striatum, a brain region involved in reward. Advanced metabolomics techniques revealed that ketamine abuse alters striatal metabolites, affecting pathways related to arginine synthesis, purine metabolism, and morphine addiction. Specifically, ketamine increased the neurotransmitter kynurenine (Kyn) and decreased dopamine (DA) in the striatum. These disturbances in Kyn and DA metabolism may underlie the addictive behaviors seen in the CPP model, offering new insights into ketamine addiction mechanisms.
Shamanism has gained growing popular attention in China despite the state's official secularism. Through analysis of literary works, documentaries, social media, and interviews, the paper shows how artistic representations aestheticize and simplify shamanism. It argues that Chinese mass shamanism is a cultural response to structural and affective predicaments of contemporary China, including instrumentalism in diffused religion, social atomization, and the erosion of 'the nearby'. The phenomenon is presented as a hybrid formation born of modernity's failure to achieve complete disenchantment, situating it within modernity's entanglement with occultism.