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Constantine
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)



Registered: 05/01/11
Posts: 4,643
Loc:
Last seen: 2 months, 19 days
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Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study 1
#21369652 - 03/06/15 07:51 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Please donate if you can afford to!!
http://www.iflscience.com/brain/uk-scientists-are-conducting-worlds-first-imaging-study-brain-lsd
For some people, they’re the recipe for one heck of a party. For others, they’re dangerous, one-way tickets to trouble that deserve their illegal status. But regardless of how people view them, and whether or not governments and policy makers like to admit it, psychoactive drugs are starting to show great promise as effective therapies for various mental health problems, and could well be a key to furthering our understanding of consciousness.
Take Ketamine, or ‘Special K’ as it is colloquially known. It’s already widely used in clinical settings as an anesthetic in both animals and humans, but studies are also highlighting its remarkable ability to treat depression, bipolar disorder and suicidal behavior. Not only that, but it is also super-fast acting, exhibiting potent antidepressant effects in as little as just two hours.
But that’s not all: Cannabis has shown potential in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and insomnia; the active compound of magic mushrooms, psilocybin, could be useful in treating addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorders and depression; MDMA could help those with post-traumatic stress disorder or Parkinson’s; and LSD could help anxiety, alcoholism and even inflammatory disorders. It’s quite an impressive list.
Unfortunately, despite these promising early studies, there is a major barrier in this field of research: attitudes towards drugs, at least in the U.K., make it very difficult to conduct such studies. Not only are funding bodies cautious about giving away their cash to such experiments, but restrictions and regulations are also very difficult to get around. Consequently, despite the huge potential for these drugs to be used in clinical settings, the dogma and fear surrounding their use is a significant obstacle.
In spite of this, there are some people who are endeavoring to conduct human research on psychedelic drugs, especially LSD, Ketamine and psilocybin. Alongside investigating their potential use as therapeutics, scientists also hope that by studying how they affect the brain in controlled settings, we could unlock some of the mysteries of consciousness.
One such scientist who is keen to delve deeper into the human mind through these drugs is Imperial College London's David Nutt, esteemed professor of neuropsychopharmacology and the former government chief drug adviser. Given the ongoing struggle for academics to secure grants for research, and the prudence of funding bodies when it comes to research involving human use of illicit substances, Nutt is now reaching out to the public through the start-up science crowdfunding platform Walacea to continue his LSD research, which has resulted from a collaboration with Imperial College London and the Beckley Foundation.
“Despite the incredible potential of this drug to further our understanding of the brain, political stigma has silenced research,” Nutt said in a news release, referring to the fact that since LSD was banned, there has only been one clinical trial on LSD. “We must not play politics with promising science that has so much potential for good.”
So far, Nutt has already administered 20 subjects with a moderate dose of LSD and conducted imaging studies on its effect in the brain using a combination of fMRI and MEG. Both of these measure brain function, but the former takes snapshots of brain activity, whereas MEG is more like recording a video.
They predict that LSD may behave in a similar way to psilocybin, reducing blood flow to the control centers of the brain and thus dampening their activity, which ultimately enhances brain connectivity. In doing so, psilocybin seems to help brain regions that are normally distinct begin to communicate with one another, which could be why we see an increase in creativity with the use of this substance. However, we won’t know if LSD works in a similar manner until the second stage of the study is completed, and that requires the public to dig deep into their pockets.
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Kman1898
Dr. Learn'd



Registered: 11/17/12
Posts: 1,192
Loc: A Park
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
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Re: Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study [Re: Constantine]
#21370194 - 03/06/15 10:42 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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http://walacea.com/campaigns/lsd/
It's already reached the full amount!!
-------------------- Difficulty has more to do with reading abillity and ability to precisely follow directions. You need no knowledge of chemistry whatsoever, you just need to understand some basic principles as simple in concept as: water boils at 100C and freezes at 0C. Otherwise all published syntheses of organic and inorganic compounds can be reproduced successfully by pretty nearly anyone with at least average intelligence. Problems always have to do with availability of materials, not esoteric knowledge.
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Stargate
Addicted To Growing


Registered: 05/26/14
Posts: 1,124
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Re: Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study [Re: Kman1898]
#21370568 - 03/06/15 12:05 PM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Another step towards convincing my friends and family that drugs aren't as bad as they think.
-------------------- From before I started growing gourmet mushrooms:
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Kman1898
Dr. Learn'd



Registered: 11/17/12
Posts: 1,192
Loc: A Park
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
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Re: Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study [Re: Stargate]
#21370742 - 03/06/15 12:49 PM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Will be helping find later today!
-------------------- Difficulty has more to do with reading abillity and ability to precisely follow directions. You need no knowledge of chemistry whatsoever, you just need to understand some basic principles as simple in concept as: water boils at 100C and freezes at 0C. Otherwise all published syntheses of organic and inorganic compounds can be reproduced successfully by pretty nearly anyone with at least average intelligence. Problems always have to do with availability of materials, not esoteric knowledge.
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rxb
n00b-sabot



Registered: 08/24/13
Posts: 12,897
Loc: FREE PSYCHONAUTICA
Last seen: 4 hours, 47 minutes
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Re: Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study [Re: Kman1898]
#21371639 - 03/06/15 05:00 PM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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i'll be a guinea pig
-------------------- ->$10 FLOW HOOD ALTERNATIVE <- . i cleaned a mold contaminated live culture and saved it. (might have useful applications) [quote]Enlil said: I'd be the guy with thousands of minions doing my bidding and all of the hot women locked in a cage for my use.[/quote]
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual




Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,613
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Re: Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study [Re: Kman1898]
#21371841 - 03/06/15 06:04 PM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Kman1898 said: http://walacea.com/campaigns/lsd/
It's already reached the full amount!!
Damn I would have given $10 (Dr. Nutt is gangster as fuck )
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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Kman1898
Dr. Learn'd



Registered: 11/17/12
Posts: 1,192
Loc: A Park
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
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Re: Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study [Re: Cognitive_Shift]
#21372597 - 03/06/15 09:24 PM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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You still can 44 days left
-------------------- Difficulty has more to do with reading abillity and ability to precisely follow directions. You need no knowledge of chemistry whatsoever, you just need to understand some basic principles as simple in concept as: water boils at 100C and freezes at 0C. Otherwise all published syntheses of organic and inorganic compounds can be reproduced successfully by pretty nearly anyone with at least average intelligence. Problems always have to do with availability of materials, not esoteric knowledge.
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual




Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,613
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Re: Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study [Re: Kman1898]
#21372602 - 03/06/15 09:26 PM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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misterjingo
Divided by zero



Registered: 09/26/12
Posts: 669
Loc: Shangri-La
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
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Re: Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study [Re: Cognitive_Shift]
#21373510 - 03/07/15 07:36 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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Donated too! Anyone paid up for the lecture and drinks?
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Kman1898
Dr. Learn'd



Registered: 11/17/12
Posts: 1,192
Loc: A Park
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
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Re: Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study [Re: misterjingo]
#21377123 - 03/08/15 07:05 AM (9 years, 2 months ago) |
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I did but I want to do dinner and Berkeley park sooooo bad!
-------------------- Difficulty has more to do with reading abillity and ability to precisely follow directions. You need no knowledge of chemistry whatsoever, you just need to understand some basic principles as simple in concept as: water boils at 100C and freezes at 0C. Otherwise all published syntheses of organic and inorganic compounds can be reproduced successfully by pretty nearly anyone with at least average intelligence. Problems always have to do with availability of materials, not esoteric knowledge.
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Rewindicus
Silly Goose



Registered: 06/05/11
Posts: 5,491
Last seen: 2 years, 6 months
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Re: Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study [Re: misterjingo]
#21449870 - 03/24/15 04:22 AM (9 years, 1 month ago) |
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I donated for the mri images level!
-------------------- “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”- Dr. Seuss "Too much of a good thing, can be wonderful!" - Mae West "If you have nothing nice to say about anyone, come sit next to me." - Alice Roosevelt Longworth
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misterjingo
Divided by zero



Registered: 09/26/12
Posts: 669
Loc: Shangri-La
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
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Re: Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study [Re: Rewindicus] 1
#23106721 - 04/11/16 01:18 PM (8 years, 1 month ago) |
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Preliminary results of this imaging study have been released through the press.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/apr/11/lsd-impact-brain-revealed-groundbreaking-images
Quote:
The profound impact of LSD on the brain has been laid bare by the first modern scans of people high on the drug.
The images, taken from volunteers who agreed to take a trip in the name of science, have given researchers an unprecedented insight into the neural basis for effects produced by one of the most powerful drugs ever created.
A dose of the psychedelic substance - injected rather than dropped - unleashed a wave of changes that altered activity and connectivity across the brain. This has led scientists to new theories of visual hallucinations and the sense of oneness with the universe some users report.
The brain scans revealed that trippers experienced images through information drawn from many parts of their brains, and not just the visual cortex at the back of the head that normally processes visual information. Under the drug, regions once segregated spoke to one another.
The stories you need to read, in one handy email Read more Further images showed that other brain regions that usually form a network became more separated in a change that accompanied users’ feelings of oneness with the world, a loss of personal identity called “ego dissolution”.
David Nutt, the government’s former drugs advisor, professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, and senior researcher on the study, said neuroscientists had waited 50 years for this moment. “This is to neuroscience what the Higgs boson was to particle physics,” he said. “We didn’t know how these profound effects were produced. It was too difficult to do. Scientists were either scared or couldn’t be bothered to overcome the enormous hurdles to get this done.”
LSD, or lysergic acid diethylamide, was first synthesised in 1938 but it’s extraordinary psychological properties did not become clear until 1943. Throughout the 1950s and 60s the drug had a major impact on psychology and psychiatric research, but its adoption as a recreational drug and its influence on youth culture led to it being banned in the 1960s.
The outlawing of LSD had an immediate effect on scientific research and studies into its effects on the brain and its potential therapeutic uses have been hampered ever since. The latest study was made possible through a crowdfunding campaign and The Beckley Foundation, which researches psychoactive substances.
With his colleague Robin Carhart-Harris, Nutt invited 20 physically and mentally healthy volunteers to attend a clinic on two separate days. One day they received an injection of 75mg of LSD and on the other they received a placebo instead.
Using three different brain imaging techniques, named arterial spin labelling, resting state MRI and magnetoencephalography, the scientists measured blood flow, functional connections within and between brain networks, and brainwaves in the volunteers on and off the drug.
Carhart-Harris said that on LSD, scans suggested volunteers were “seeing with their eyes shut”, though the images they reported were from their imaginations rather than the world outside. “We saw many more areas of the brain than normal were contributing to visual processing under LSD, even though volunteers’ eyes were closed,” he said. The more prominent the effect, the more intense people rated their dreamlike visions.
Under the influence, brain networks that deal with vision, attention, movement and hearing became far more connected, leading to what looked like a “more unified brain”, he said. But at the same time, other networks broke down. Scans revealed a loss of connections between part of the brain called the parahippocampus and another region known as the retrosplenial cortex.
LSD brain scan Facebook Twitter Pinterest A second image shows different sections of the brain, either on placebo, or under the influence of LSD (lots of orange). Photograph: Imperial/Beckley Foundation The effect could underpin the altered state of consciousness long linked to LSD, and the sense of the self-disintegrating and being replaced with a sense of oneness with others and nature. “This experience is sometimes framed in a religious or spiritual way, and seems to be associated with improvements in wellbeing after the drug’s effects have subsided,” Carhart-Harris said.
The drug can be seen as reversing the more restricted thinking we develop from infancy to adulthood, said Nutt, whose study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study could pave the way for LSD or related chemicals to be used to treat psychiatric disorders. Nutt said the drug could pull the brain out of thought patterns seen in depression and addiction through its effects on brain networks.
Amanda Feilding, director of the Beckley Foundation, said: “We are finally unveiling the brain mechanisms underlying the potential of LSD, not only to heal, but also to deepen our understanding of consciousness itself.”
The images are very interesting. Hopefully they'll release all the work soon so comparisons can be made between the psilocybin brain images and the LSD ones.
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Hygrocybe
Walkin Wonderland



Registered: 06/06/09
Posts: 1,227
Last seen: 8 months, 16 days
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Re: Crowdfunding for World's first LSD Brain Imaging Study [Re: misterjingo] 1
#23107030 - 04/11/16 03:05 PM (8 years, 1 month ago) |
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