Different hierarchical reconfigurations in the brain by psilocybin and escitalopram for depression
The results showed that the two pharmacological interventions created significantly different hierarchical reconfigurations of whole-brain dynamics… the main hypothesis is that psychedelics can bring about a relaxation of the precision of high-level priors or ‘beliefs’ (REBUS), allowing (anarchic) bottom–up information flow, consistent with ‘anarchic’ (that is, hierarchy-free) system dynamics. This theory is consistent with our results showing psilocybin treatment leading to a hierarchical reconfiguration and general flattening of the hierarchy. In contrast, the increase in directedness of the hierarchical reorganization after escitalopram treatment would imply that the responders show a more top–down hierarchical organization of their brain dynamics.
Effective interventions for neuropsychiatric disorders may work by rebalancing the brain’s functional hierarchical organization. Here we directly investigated the effects of two different serotonergic pharmacological interventions on functional brain hierarchy in major depressive disorder (MDD) in a two-arm double-blind phase II randomized controlled trial comparing psilocybin therapy… with escitalopram… This suggests an overall flattening of the hierarchy for psilocybin after administration in MDD (Major Depressive Disorder) patients, which is consistent with the evidence from healthy participants on psilocybin and other classic psychedelics Specifically, psychedelics have been shown to broaden the repertoire of connectivity states, increase the entropy of resting-state activity, and enhance the connectivity between central high-level networks and the rest of the brain. More generally, the results are consistent with the REBUS theory and the anarchic brain hypothesis, integrating Friston’s free-energy principle with the entropic brain hypothesis of Carhart-Harris…
Original Article (Nature):
Different hierarchical reconfigurations in the brain by psilocybin and escitalopram for depression
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