PLoS ONE
December 16, 2022
Caroline L. Alves, Rubens Gisbert Cury, Kirstin Roster et al.
13 citations
Ayahuasca, an Amazonian plant blend used in traditional medicine for centuries, is a promising therapy for neurological and mental diseases. Using an EEG dataset, machine learning and complex network analysis automatically detected changes in brain activity at three data abstraction levels. Connectivity changes between brain regions (correlation of EEG time series) yielded the highest accuracy (92%), followed by raw EEG (88%) and complex network measures (83%). The frontal and temporal lobes were most activated, consistent with prior work. A novel finding identified F3 and PO4 as the most important brain connections, possibly linked to face-recognition-like cognitive processes during visual hallucinations.
Journal of Physics: Complexity
January 22, 2024
Caroline L Alves, Manuel Ciba, Thaise G L de O. Toutain et al.
5 citations
Machine learning applied to EEG data reveals that the psychedelic DMT disrupts the balance between functional segregation and integration in cortical brain networks, making brain activity more entropic. Complex network measures such as closeness centrality best capture these changes, achieving 89% AUC in classifying brain states before and after DMT inhalation. Key connectivity differences involve the temporal and central cortex and the precentral gyrus and lateral occipital cortex, the latter presumably related to emotional, visual, and mystical experiences. Larger communities and longer average path lengths occur under DMT, supporting the view that psychedelics increase brain entropy.
medRxiv
June 16, 2022
Caroline L. Alves, Thaise G. L. de O. Toutain, Joel Augusto Moura Porto et al.
preprint
A machine-learning method using support vector machines classified EEG data from volunteers before and after inhaling the psychedelic DMT. Complex network measures derived from brain connectivity achieved 89% AUC, outperforming raw connectivity matrices. Key distinguishing features included connections between temporal and central cortex regions (TP8-C3) linked to finger movements, and between precentral gyrus and lateral occipital cortex (FC5-P8) potentially related to emotional and mystical experiences. Closeness centrality was the most important network measure. DMT increased community size and average path length, disrupting the balance between functional segregation and integration, supporting the idea that cortical activity becomes more entropic under psychedelics.