致幻剂如何重塑大脑？Nature 研究用 AI 分析裸盖菇素脑扫描
One with the world? A new look at brains transformed by psychedelics.
莫纳什大学团队在 Nature 发表 PsiConnect 研究，给 62 名从未使用过致幻剂的人服用 19 毫克裸盖菇素，并用 AI 分析用药与清醒状态下的脑扫描。结果显示大脑网络变化并非纯粹的混乱，研究者认为混沌无法解释致幻剂带来的洞察与心理改善。 brief: yes
For about a decade, the mainstream understanding has been that psychedelics cause chaos in the brain. Brain networks—the stable patterns of communication that handle vision, attention, or our sense of self, and more—loosen and start talking to each other all at once. EEG traces get noisier and more complex. “Think of the networks of the brain as highways,” says Devon Stoliker, a neuroscientist at Monash University. “Under psychedelics, these highways break down into many different directions.”
In a recent Nature study, Stoliker’s team designed an experiment to test whether these directions are truly chaotic and random. Researchers gathered 62 people who had never taken a psychedelic before, gave them 19 milligrams of psilocybin, a common psychedelic found in certain fungi, and scanned their brains. Then, they used AI to analyze the drugged and sober brain scans. What emerged was not exactly chaos.
An uninterrupted trip
Stoliker thinks chaos is not a satisfactory explanation for psychedelics’ effect on the brain. “It never really explained why an individual would have a meaningful experience, why they might have insight, why they might experience clarity, and why these might translate into positive psychological changes,” Stoliker says. To investigate if there are other explanations, he and his colleagues designed a study called PsiConnect.
来源：Ars Technica · arstechnica.com