The magic mushroom could one day be prescribed for depression. Psilocybin, the active ingredient in mushrooms had a profound effect of the key regions of the brain. Two separate studies evaluating the effects of psilocybin showed that it suppressed activity in the regions of the brain, which also dampened with other anti-depressant treatments.
In first study thirty participants were given the drug intravenously to measure changes in blood flow and activity while they were inside magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, which measure changes in brain activity. Unexpectedly, the MRI scans showed the drug caused decrease in activity in hub regions with dense connections to other areas.
The drug disconnected two key hubs first is the medial prefrontal cortex, which is hyperactive in people with depression and other is the posterior cingulate cortex, thought to play key role in self-awareness. The study findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The second study involving ten participants showed that psilocybin enhanced their recollections of personal memories and they feel generally happier in the following days. The study findings will be published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. According to Robin Carhart Harris from Imperial’s department of medicine, who worked on both studies, the results suggest psilocybin could be useful as an appendage to psychotherapy.
Psychedelics are believed as mind-expanding drugs, so it has been assumed that they work by increasing brain activity. But, surprisingly, we found that psilocybin actually caused activity to decrease in areas that have the densest connections with other areas, explained Prof David Nutt from Imperial College London.
These regions of the brain are known to play a key role in constraining your experience of the world and keeping it orderly. They know that deactivating these regions leads to a state in which the world is experienced as strange, concluded Prof Nutt.