Mice tripping on psychedelics help explain neural origins of hallucinations
Researchers from the University of Oregon dosed mice with a powerful psychedelic drug and with unprecedented detail zoomed in on how the animal’s brains subsequently generated visual hallucinations.
DOI is often used in research conditions as it is not currently a schedule one drug in the United States, unlike its better known psychedelic counterparts. The huge limitation to this study is the fact that the researchers can never be sure the animal is actually visually hallucinating or not, however, they do suggest that certain altered behavioral patterns, including odd paw movements and head twitches, can signal a mouse may be visually hallucinating. It is also fundamentally unclear whether these two neural alterations are causing visual hallucinations, are merely disruptions generated by the psychedelic drug, or both.
Original Article (New Atlas):
Mice tripping on psychedelics help explain neural origins of hallucinations
Artwork Fair Use: Macias M, Blazejczyk M, Kazmierska P, Caban B, Skalecka A, Tarkowski B, Rodo A, Konopacki J, Jaworski J
