Neuroscience
February 4, 2020
Rocío Martínez Vivot, Carla Pallavicini, Federico Zamberlán et al.
116 citations
Long-term meditation practice can increase the entropy of brain oscillations, indicating a more flexible and diverse neural state. Among three traditions—focused attention (Himalayan Yoga), open monitoring (Vipassana), and open awareness (Isha Shoonya Yoga)—Vipassana produced the largest entropy increases, especially in alpha and gamma bands. All traditions increased global coherence in the gamma band while reducing metastability, stabilizing gamma dynamics. Machine learning classifiers distinguished between traditions based on gamma entropy scalp distributions. These findings show that meditation can endogenously induce high-entropy brain states, similar to those seen with serotonergic psychedelics, but achieved through prolonged practice.
Consciousness and cognition
March 1, 2019
Charlotte Martial, Héléna Cassol, Vanessa Charland-Verville et al.
98 citations
Near-death experiences (NDEs) share consistent features across cultures, suggesting a common neurobiological basis. Analyzing semantic similarity between about 15,000 reports from 165 psychoactive substances and 625 NDE narratives, the NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine produced reports most similar to NDEs, followed by Salvia divinorum and serotonergic psychedelics like DMT. The similarity was driven by concepts of self and environmental consciousness, as well as therapeutic, ceremonial, and religious aspects of drug use. Ketamine may serve as a safe experimental model for NDE phenomenology, and endogenous NMDA antagonists might be released near death.
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
November 1, 2018
Camila Sanz, Carla Pallavicini, Carla Pallavicini et al.
78 citations
Classic psychedelics produce a wide range of subjective effects influenced by the user's mindset and environment, and their common mechanism involves activation of the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor. The diversity of effects across different compounds may also stem from their binding affinities for multiple neurotransmitter receptors and transporters. By analyzing two binding affinity datasets alongside natural language processing of thousands of trip reports from Erowid's Experience Vaults, preliminary evidence showed that similarity in binding profiles across phenethylamines and tryptamines correlates with similarity in the language used to describe experiences.
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience
November 1, 2018
Camila Sanz, Carla Pallavicini, Carla Pallavicini et al.
78 citations
Classic psychedelics produce a wide range of subjective effects influenced by the user's mindset and environment, and their common mechanism involves activation of the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor. The diversity of effects across different compounds may also stem from their binding affinities for multiple neurotransmitter receptors and transporters. By analyzing two binding affinity datasets alongside natural language processing of thousands of trip reports from Erowid's Experience Vaults, preliminary evidence showed that similarity in binding profiles across phenethylamines and tryptamines correlates with similarity in the language used to describe experiences.