Neuroscience research sheds light on how psilocybin alters spatial awareness

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Neuroscience research sheds light on how psilocybin alters spatial awareness

"The psychedelic substance psilocybin has long been known for its ability to alter perception and cognition, often leaving users feeling disoriented."

"When ingested, it is converted in the body to psilocin, which acts on serotonin receptors in the brain, particularly the serotonin 2A receptor. Psilocybin is known for its psychedelic effects, which include altered perception, mood, and cognition, as well as experiences of profound changes in the sense of self, space, and time."

"However, much of the existing research has been done using indirect measures like functional magnetic resonance imaging, which gives a broad overview of brain activity but doesn’t provide detailed information about how individual neurons are affected. This is where studies using animal models, such as this one, come into play—they allow scientists to explore the effects of psychedelics at the cellular level, offering a more precise understanding of how these substances impact brain function.

A specific focus was placed on the retrosplenial cortex, a brain region important for spatial orientation and navigation. Some neurons in this area respond to specific locations in an environment, similar to “place cells” in the hippocampus, which are critical for forming a mental map of one’s surroundings. The researchers wanted to see how psilocybin would impact this spatial encoding, potentially explaining why people on psychedelics often report changes in their sense of location."

"The role of serotonin in these effects was confirmed by the experiments involving ketanserin. When the mice were pre-treated with ketanserin before receiving psilocybin, the changes in neural activity patterns were largely prevented. This indicates that the serotonin 2A receptor is a key player in mediating psilocybin’s effects on the brain."

 

Has anyone tried ketanserin on the forum?

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To follow up on ketanserin:

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"The retrosplenial cortex's function is currently not well understood, but its location close to visual areas and also to the hippocampal spatial/memory system suggest it may have a role in mediating between perceptual and memory functions, particularly in the spatial domain. However, its exact contribution to either space or memory processing has been hard to pin down."