Why Making Our Brains Noisier Feels Good (2021)
A counterintuitive approach to improving our mental health
Thomas Nail
rating good
type nonfiction/journalism article
concepts
psychology/psychadelics science/human-biology
2021/02/25 How psilosybin targets depression by increasing default mode network activity, instead of suppressing it like conventional anti-depressants
- Normal antidepressants acting on seratonin may suppress ability to feel emotions, empathy
- New work on psilosybin → mechanism of action vs tx-resistant depression is directly related to the amplification of spontaneous cognitive fluctuations
- SCF = resting-state activity, mostly from default mode network, occurs during sleep, anaesthesia, mind wandering
- Can fall into "negative patterns" over time; anti-depressants/anti-anxiety/sleep meds target this by lowering the activity overall; interfere with REM sleep and dreaming
- BUT studies show REM sleep and dreaming = important in regulating mood, depression
- Dreaming increases SCF and can help people solve cognitive tasks
- Brain frequencies = how fast groups of neurons fire together
- Frequencies of different groups can couple to form higher frequency patterns, into beta (12-30 Hz) and gamma (30-180 Hz) ranges
- Nested frequencies form consciousness, awareness
- New approach = try to increase fluctuations to treat depression instead of decrease
- May facilitate "reset," like shaking a snow globe redistributes snow