LSD, a psychedelic drug with nootropic effects, has some initial support
from new studies published in Experimental Neurology. The results of the
study showed that LSD enhanced human memory function, boosted novelty
preference in rats, and raised indicators of neuroplasticity in human brain
organoids.
Psychedelic medications have showed potential in the treatment of mental
disorders like depression, PTSD, and addiction when used in conjunction with
psychotherapy. Uncertainty still exists regarding the cellular and molecular
processes behind psychedelics' therapeutic benefits.
According to certain studies, the reason why psychedelic drugs have such
favorable effects is because they encourage neurogenesis and
neuroplasticity. The goal of the current study was to gain a better
understanding of how psychedelic-induced neuroplasticity may be used to
improve memory and learning.
"The brain plasticity processes underpinning the cognitive advantages of
sleep and dreaming are my major research subjects. Because psychedelics
induce dream-like experiences with significant cognitive effects, I have
become interested in them in the last ten years, said research author
Sidarta Ribeiro, a full professor of neuroscience at the Brain Institute of
the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte.
To study the biological effects of LSD, the researchers developed brain
organoids, which are brain-like structures generated from human induced
pluripotent stem cells. They discovered that LSD had an impact on a number
of processes, including mTOR signaling, neuronal pathfinding, and DNA
replication.
According to the researchers, proteomic information from human brain
organoids "suggests that LSD affects several pathways involved in neuronal
plasticity." The mTOR pathway, a protein kinase implicated in several
neuronal plasticity processes and serving as a hub between plasticity,
learning, and memory, was particularly affected by LSD, as was the mTOR
pathway, which we discovered to be significantly altered.
76 rats were subjected to a new object preference test several days after
receiving a dosage of LSD or an inert saline solution by the researchers in
order to assess the effects of LSD on hippocampus-dependent memory
mechanisms. LSD-treated rats had a greater propensity to explore new items.
But the amount of time spent generally investigating items did not seem to
be impacted by LSD.
According to the researchers, "our data demonstrate that LSD pre-treatment
can significantly boost novelty preference in rats several days after
dosing, with a considerable single dosage impact." The findings suggest that
novelty seeking was boosted by LSD-induced plasticity.
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, Ribeiro and his
research group also looked at how LSD affected people. In the cross-over
trial, 25 healthy participants who had taken LSD at least once before (but
had abstained from using any psychedelic or other illegal substances for at
least two weeks) were given 50 g of LSD in one session and 50 g of a placebo
in the second session. The sessions were run in a random sequence.
Participants underwent a Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure exam and a
visuospatial 2D object-location task the morning following dose as measures
of memory consolidation (a commonly used neuropsychological assessment of
memory encoding and recall in which participants are asked to reproduce a
complicated line drawing).
The day after taking LSD, individuals generally performed better on memory
tests than they did the day after taking the placebo, according to the
researchers. According to the authors' findings, this is the first study to
demonstrate that LSD improves subacute memory in people. The effects of LSD,
they observed, were, however, not particularly pronounced, possibly as a
result of "the single, relatively low dose administered."
Together, the results show "even a single dosage of LSD can increase brain
plasticity and boost cognition in healthy people, several days after the LSD
administration," according to Ribeiro for PsyPost. We still need to
understand more about age differences, potential gender disparities, and the
function of environment (setting) in the modification of effects, the
researcher pointed out.
Since the 1960s, psychedelics have been stigmatized, and in the last ten
years, they have made a comeback in biology and medicine through the front
door, according to Ribeiro. "Psychedelics, however, have uses beyond simply
treating people with pathological conditions. They should be viewed as more
than just a form of medicine because they may also be highly helpful in
enhancing healthy people's cognitive function.
Isis M. Ornelasa, Felipe A. Cini, Isabel Wießner, Encarni Marcos, Dráulio
B. Arajo, Livia Goto-Silva, Juliana Nascimento, Sergio R. B. Silva, Marcelo
N. Costa, Marcelo Falchi, Rodolfo Olivieri, Fernanda Palhano-Fontes, Eduardo
Sequerra, Daniel Martins-de-Souza, Amanda Fe
