A team at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, a division of the Allen Institute, has sent brain samples on a “trip” to gain insights into consciousness as well as therapy for depression and anxiety.
Using small, donated samples of brain tissues that are discarded during surgery, Associate Investigator Jonathan Ting, Ph.D. and his team are aiming to build a “periodic table” of brain cell types to categorise the brain by its cellular building blocks.
For two years, Ting and his colleagues have been dosing pieces of brain with psilocybin with the intent of understanding how individual neurons respond to the drug.
Understanding how psychedelics work
Ting says that, despite growing evidence and ongoing trials that show psilocybin as a potential therapeutic for a number of psychiatric conditions, little is known about how psilocybin works in the human brain.
Meanhwan Kim, Ph.D. neuroscientist at the Allen Institute for Brain Science highlights that psilocybin mimics serotonin, a neurochemical messenger that cells release to regulate mood, and binds to certain kinds of serotonin receptors on various brain cells.
The Institute reports that to look at what happens to cells exposed to the drug, the team used a technique called Patch-seq to capture electrical activity, 3D shape and gene expression of individual neurons bathed in psilocybin.
The team hypothesized that the psilocybin would hyperactivate all the cells carrying the specific serotonin receptor.
However, they found that some of the cells activated, while others deactivated and most did not respond.
As these receptors are present in multiple parts of the brain, the scientists will now sample cells from different regions, as well as studying the same neurons in mice.
Can we separate the trip from the medicine?
Koch told the Institute that, with the help of psychotherapists, patients using the drug report a dissolution of their sense of self and feel connected with the universe, gaining a positive outlook on life – which could underlie psychedelics’ ability to treat conditions like depression and anxiety.
“Having these mystical experiences, the patient is able to overcome their depression or reframe that depression and return to a more baseline mental being,” Koch said. “It really seems to restore sort of the wellness and balance in the life of the patient. It’s quite magical”
The Institute says that Ting wonders if scientists can separate the trip from the medicine, and, if so, would the stigma against psychedelics resolve? However Koch says the two features may be inseparable.
“We don’t know yet, but I strongly suspect that you cannot separate the two. Hallucinating is an essential part of the way these drugs work,” Koch said.
