5-HT2AR and NMDAR psychedelics induce similar hyper-synchronous states in the rat cognitive-limbic cortex-basal ganglia system.
Communications biology July 26, 2023 Ivani Brys, Sebastian A Barrientos, Jon Ezra Ward et al. 33 citations
Psychedelics like LSD, DOI, ketamine, and PCP produce profound changes in perception and cognition by inducing synchronized high-frequency oscillations across multiple brain regions. In rats, these drugs caused near-zero phase delays (<1 ms) in the ventral striatum and cortical areas, indicating hypersynchrony that likely disrupts information integration across neural systems. This shared pattern, despite different firing rate effects on interneurons and principal cells, suggests a key mechanism behind altered states of consciousness. Similar hypersynchrony may contribute to hallucinations and delusions in psychotic disorders, offering potential targets for new antipsychotic treatments.