Kind: captions
Language: en
the default mode Network activates when
a person is introspective and under
normal circumstances becomes less active
when a person shifts their attention to
the outside world but brain studies show
that under the influence of a
psychedelic the default mode network is
quieted while other regions of the brain
increase communication with each
other a mathematical model captures a
normal brain's activity in contrast a
brain under the influence of psilocybin
reveals a dramatic increase in Global
Communication thousands of new
connections form linking brain regions
that don't normally talk to each
other one analogy I've used for how
psychedelics work in the brain is this
snow globe when you pick up a snow globe
you know the snow's settled at the
bottom it's sort of fixed and then you
pick it up shake it and things jiggle
around and there's random
and a kind of chaos if you want in the
system the user experiences this as an
altered and heightened sense of
awareness but what causes this early in
our functional brain Imaging studies of
psychedelics scientists were finding
that the default mode network is turning
down or turning off during these
experiences and that was a really good
place to start but we began to then look
one layer deeper why was the default
mode turning off new research LED
neuroscientist Fred Barrett to
investigate a region of the brain called
the claustrum the claustrum is a really
thin sheet of gray matter in the brain
tucked deep within each of the
hemispheres of the
brain recent animal models have shown
that it is incredibly highly connected
to just about every other region of the
brain understanding that The receptors
targeted by psychedelic drugs are also
really densely expressed in the clom we
began to wonder whether the clom may be
at the center of psychelic
effects Fred believes the claustrum
central location and shape suggest it
regulates communication between the
Departments when it's functioning
normally the claustrum is essentially
acting like a switchboard it's trying to
help other brain regions figure out when
to turn on and when to turn off but when
we experience a psychedelic drug we
believe that it's binding to specific
receptors in the claustrum and somehow
disrupting or disorganizing the
claustrum it's almost as if the
switchboard walks away what happens next
is that we seem to observe a radical
change in the way that brain regions
talk to each other and it may be within
this context that we're experiencing
learning and a possible even re wiring
of the circuits that govern our behavior
and it may be that it's that radical
reorganization that allows people to
encounter new psychological insights
that they hadn't encountered before Fred
thinks the claustrum sudden abdication
of control may help explain why rigid
behavior and thought patterns have a
shot at
resetting it's almost like they've seen
this like kind of grand menu within
their mind that they weren't aware of
that this this greater number
possibilities that they can
explore it took a while to recover I was
having headaches and muscle pains but it
was the best headache I'd ever had in my
life because it told me that the
psilocybin was working it was actually
physically restructuring my brain
something that I never imagined could
happen
before it's like uh reprogramming the
operating system of a computer you're
getting down to very B basic code level
changes that can enduringly change
someone going forward