Increased frontal and paralimbic activation following ayahuasca, the pan-amazonian inebriant
Psychopharmacology March 30, 2006 Jordi Riba, Sergio Romero, Eva Grasa et al. 245 citations
A single oral dose of ayahuasca, equivalent to 1.0 mg DMT per kilogram of body weight, increased blood flow in frontal and paralimbic brain regions of fifteen male volunteers with prior psychedelic experience. Greater perfusion was observed bilaterally in the anterior insula, with stronger effects in the right hemisphere, and in the right anterior cingulate/frontomedial cortex—areas linked to somatic awareness, subjective feeling states, and emotional arousal. Additional increases occurred in the left amygdala/parahippocampal gyrus, a structure involved in emotional processing. These findings indicate that ayahuasca interacts with neural systems central to interoception and emotional processing, suggesting a modulatory role for serotonergic neurotransmission.