Psilocybin is the active compound found in psychedelic mushrooms that induces psychological effects, mainly through the serotonin receptors. A study that was recently conducted has found a way to explain how psilocybin changes how the human brain processes mental representations and tactile sensations of an individual’s body.
While most of the underlying neurocognitive processes of these changes in an individual’s perception of self are unclear, it is known that the psychedelic substance causes alterations in body/self boundaries. Katrin Peller of the University of Zurich, who is the study’s author, stated that research focused on psilocybin, among other psychedelic substances as possible therapeutics for mental health conditions was growing, adding that despite this, the clinical mechanism of action remained unclear.
She explained that most patients who suffered from mental disorders had altered perceptions of their bodily selves. This was why psilocybin was used in the study as its administration would enable the researchers to study the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie this shift in perception.
The research was based on the predictive coding theory, which views perception as a hypothesis testing process. According to this theory, the human brain creates a reality model to forecast incoming sensory input and whenever it encounters an unpredicted stimulus, it updates the model.
In their report, the researchers explained that the sense of touch was created with reference to representations in the internal body, which contain previous expectations. The researchers revealed that the brain generated a certain electrical wave when it received an unforeseen input, which was known as mismatch negativity.
The researchers investigated this brain response by having the study’s participants complete a somatosensory task while they were under the influence of a placebo and psilocybin. During the exercise, a stream of electrical impulses was delivered to each participant’s left forearm, with the stream being interrupted by other electrical impulses. While the task was being performed, the researchers recorded the electrical brain activity using electroencephalography as well as brain blood oxygenation levels using fMRI.
In their report, the researchers noted that in comparison to placebo, psilocybin was linked to a decline in brain activity in response to stimuli in the cerebellum, the primary visual cortex and the dorsomedial and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. The psychedelic was also found to decrease mismatch negativity electroencephalography responses. The study’s findings were reported in “Cerebral Cortex.”
Its findings are similar to the results of a prior study that looked into how LSD, which is also a psychedelic substance, affected brain responses during an auditory task.
Many other companies, including Tryp Therapeutics Inc. (CSE: TRYP) (OTCQB: TRYPF), are also conducting clinical studies on psilocybin with the intention of developing badly needed therapies for the mental health field, which is seeing a surge of cases due to the effects of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Tryp Therapeutics Inc. (CSE: TRYP) (OTCQB: TRYPF) available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/TRYPF
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