The LSD It is one of the most consumed drugs of recent times.
And is that its effects, among which are hallucinationswith both eyes open and closed, synesthesia,dissolution of the ego or distorted perception, they delight drug lovers, who find in this a way to literally escape their lives, imagining other alternatives.
However, it is clear that if the consumption of this substance leads to who takes it to experience all these hallucinations it is because it greatly affects the brain. But what are the changes it produces? This drug has been known more or less for a long time, but until now no detailed images of its use have been obtained. action on the brain. I know it has been achieved by a group of scientists led by David Nutt, a professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College from London, which has achieved images so detailed they are worth framing.
This is how it all started
About a year ago Nutt began his personal crusade to obtain images that they could enter the LSD behavior about the brain; since, although the oldest theories affirm that this drug only acts on the visual cortexHe was convinced that there was something else, especially considering that the hallucinations they occur both with open and closed eyes.
Therefore, with the help of Imperial College and the Beckley Foundation launched a campaign Crowfunding on the platform Wallacea with the objective of raise funds enough to carry out this investigation.
Well, apparently he must have got enough, because the results They are already here and, of course, they will not leave you indifferent.
How were images of the effects of LSD on the brain obtained?
The experiment, which started parallel to the launch of the campaign Crowfunding, had the collaboration of twenty volunteers those who were injected 0075 milligrams of LSD a day and a dose of placebo To the next one.
Then they used three techniques different from brain imaging. On the one hand, they used arterial spin labeling, a method used to change the contrast of fabrics in combination with other techniques, which in this case were the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which captured the images as if they were photos, and the magnetoencephalography (MEG),which acts as a video camera.
Thus, they verified how immediately after consumption, the connections of the whole brain, not just the visual cortex. So the images the study participants were clearly seeing did not come from their eyes, which remained closed, but from their eyes. imagination.
And it is that, while our brain normally contains a series of stable connections very specialized In each of the tasks corresponding to the correct functioning of the organism, these images showed that some areas of the brain that never connect, formed very strong connections, giving rise to a network responsible for dream experiences characteristics of consumption of this substance.
How can this discovery help science?
New-scientific-discoveries-3
Despite its great importance, this discovery is still in paales, but it has encouraged researchers to continue delving into this area, since the complete knowledge of the actuation mode of this type of substances may be the key to the development of treatments for psychiatric illnesses based in psychedelic substances.
As we have seen so many times, drug use is detrimental to our health, but a good knowledge of its mechanism of action can help turn these dangerous substances into the key to cure thousands of people. As they say, if you can’t beat your enemy, join him.
David Nutt photo: lsneuron
