Brain imaging scans show that under the effect of lysergic acid, brain areas that superintend the sense of self have altered activation. The result could be important for treating social interaction deficits in mental disorders such as depression or schizophrenia.
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The diethylamide-25 of lysergic acid, better known as LSD, alters the activity of the brain regions that allow the subject to distinguish between himself and other people. This is revealed by a new study published in the "Journal of Neuroscience" by Katrin Preller and Franz Vollenweider, of the University of Zurich, in Switzerland, and colleagues of an international collaboration.
LSD is a drug well known for its psychedelic effects. Cause in the subject an alteration of the mood, of the perception of the self and of the external reality, as if the senses were amplified. This is an illegal substance, but it is used in some trials in the psychiatric and psychotherapeutic field.
In the central nervous system, LSD interacts with the receptors of several neurotransmitters, but the psychedelic effects are mainly due to the action on the 5-HT2A receptor of serotonin, whose functioning is impaired in many psychiatric disorders.
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The research by Preller and Vollenweider focused in particular on the relationship between the 5-HT2A receptor for serotonin and social interaction. Participants were divided into three groups, who received LSD, ketanserin (a drug that could block the effects of LSD) or a placebo. Once under the effect of the substances, the volunteers participated in a test based on a "game of looks" with a virtual character with human features.
During the test, the investigators analyzed the behavior of the subjects using two different techniques: functional magnetic resonance imaging and tracking of eye movements. The first one allows to visualize the active brain areas in a subject engaged in a specific one task. The second allows to highlight on which points the subject's gaze is focused, and then on which objects his attention is focused.
The analysis of the data showed that during the test in subjects under the effect of LSD, the activity of the posterior cingulate cortex and of the temporal cortex was reduced. These two brain regions are important for establishing the "sense of self": in essence, LSD made the difference between the test situation in which the subject was deciding where to direct the attention and the one in which the subject was much more nuanced than normal. he had to follow the gaze of the virtual character.
These effects were blocked by taking ketanserin, indicating that this receptor system could be the key to treating social interaction deficits in mental disorders such as depression, characterized by excessive attention to oneself, or schizophrenia, in which there is a total loss of the sense of self.
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