Imperial College London
Alternate

Professor David Nutt DM, FRCP, FRCPsych, FSB, FMedSci

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Brain Sciences

The Edmond J Safra Chair in Neuropsychopharmacology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

d.nutt

 
 
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Location

 

Burlington Danes BuildingBurlington DanesHammersmith Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Alamia:2020:10.7554/elife.59784,
author = {Alamia, A and Timmermann, C and VanRullen, R and Carhart-Harris, RL},
doi = {10.7554/elife.59784},
journal = {eLife},
pages = {1--16},
title = {DMT alters cortical travelling waves},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.59784},
volume = {9},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Psychedelic drugs are potent modulators of conscious states and therefore powerful tools for investigating their neurobiology. N,N, Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) can rapidly induce an extremely immersive state of consciousness characterized by vivid and elaborate visual imagery. Here, we investigated the electrophysiological correlates of the DMT-induced altered state from a pool of participants receiving DMT and (separately) placebo (saline) while instructed to keep their eyes closed. Consistent with our hypotheses, results revealed a spatio-temporal pattern of cortical activation (i.e. travelling waves) similar to that elicited by visual stimulation. Moreover, the typical top-down alpha-band rhythms of closed-eyes rest were significantly decreased, while the bottom-up forward wave was significantly increased. These results support a recent model proposing that psychedelics reduce the ‘precision-weighting of priors’, thus altering the balance of top-down versus bottom-up information passing. The robust hypothesis-confirming nature of these findings imply the discovery of an important mechanistic principle underpinning psychedelic-induced altered states.
AU  - Alamia,A
AU  - Timmermann,C
AU  - VanRullen,R
AU  - Carhart-Harris,RL
DO  - 10.7554/elife.59784
EP  - 16
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 2050-084X
SP  - 1
TI  - DMT alters cortical travelling waves
T2  - eLife
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.59784
UR  - https://elifesciences.org/articles/59784
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/83440
VL  - 9
ER  -
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