Dose Response retweeted
“The administration of L.S.D. by one person to another constitutes a psychotherapeutic transaction, and unless the giver is competent to handle the subsequent emotional changes in the recipient he should not embark on the experiment.” – Ronald Sandison, 1966, BMJ, 2(5504), 48–49.
Hmm, incorrect.
The 1997 FDG-PET study measured glucose metabolism, not blood flow. The new study measured perfusion using arterial spin labelling (ASL), not BOLD fMRI. Psilocybin-induced vasoconstriction is well documented.
Metabolism ≠ blood flow.
But agreed, fMRI is messy.
This is the problem: no MedDRA term quite captures a psychological “kick in the ass.” Recent 5meo study lists headache, nausea and nasal discomfort. But what about “ontological shock”- a shattered worldview, existential disorientation, and reality feeling fundamentally altered?
The race to discharge: blast folks out of a 5-MeO-DMT cannon and get ’em out the door
Single Intranasal Administration of the Psychedelic Mebufotenin for Treatment-Resistant Depression jamanetwork.com/journals/jam…
UK already took this route with cannabis: 'medicinal' products moved to Schedule 2, while 'non-medicinal' cannabis remained in Schedule 1. I suspect psychedelics will follow. Strange compromise that sidesteps wider inconsistencies in scheduling
Dose Response retweeted
Watch Supplementary Video 4 🔥
I still remember @DR_WANG_SIBCB showed this video at the Psychedelics GRC and it drew an audible gasp from the audience
Our new study reveals how 5-HT2A receptor β-arrestin signaling and psychedelic kinetics enable lasting antidepressant-like effects with fewer hallucinogenic-like effects, opening new avenues for psychedelic-inspired antidepressant design. (1/6)
doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-0…
Dose Response retweeted
Just saw a psychedelic conference post saying it was "the most important research in human history." The egos in psychedelic research are next level. I used to hear this stuff all the time at Hopkins, about this research saving the human species. I've been doing psychedelic research for 22 years and I don't even do the most important research in my own family!! (my wife does research informing how to save babies deprived of oxygen during childbirth).
Dose Response retweeted
“One of the worst things that slows down progress is the concept of 'emergence.'”
This week on 632nm, @drmichaellevin (@TuftsUniversity) argues that the concept of emergence can hold science back by treating unexpected biological behavior as an explanation rather than something to investigate.
“Emergence just means surprise... You didn’t see it coming.”
If we call something “emergent,” we still need to explain why this behavior emerged instead of another. The goal should be to understand the underlying patterns well enough to predict and control them.
We discuss how this perspective could reshape biology, our understanding of intelligence, and AI.
Full episode on X and YouTube (see comment).
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:16 - Platonic Space
03:55 - Biology in the Absence of Evolution
21:11 - Extracting Knowledge from Platonic Space
37:04 - Development and Loss Functions
50:09 - Investigating Layers of Control
55:35 - Is Computer Science Misleading Our Understanding of Minds?
58:14 - Bioelectric Patterns and Drug Discovery
1:04:07 - How to Build a Predictive Developmental Model
1:13:20 - Levin’s Top Books, Thoughts on Collective Existence
1:18:00 - Questions that Keep Michael Up at Night
1:22:32 - How Does Levin Interact with AI?
Congrats- Verrry interesting! Switches between conscious and suppressed representations ~15 times/sec. A full cycle is ~8 Hz… right in the alpha band. Psychedelics reduce alpha power. Could they disrupt the boundary between conscious and unconscious processing?
This quoted post is unavailable.
Veerrrry interesting!
~15 Hz: Rate of switching between the conscious and suppressed representations.
~8 Hz: Approximate frequency of a full cycle (conscious → suppressed → conscious).
full-cycle frequency falls within the alpha-band range
Dear @Psyched_Alpha. Serious concerns about the reliability of Khan et al. (2026). Reconstructed week-10 effects vs SSRI (Hedges’ g = 8.4–10.5) are extraordinary for a depression RCT. For perspective, chocolate vs feces desirability: d = 4.52.
geneticsmr.com/index.php/gmr…
Pakistani Researchers Publish Psilocybin for Depression Study
A trial of psilocybin in patients with major depressive disorder based in Pakistan has been published in Genetics and Molecular Research.
The design is intriguing, with 67 participants randomly assigned to one of four groups: SSRI treatment, CBT, psilocybin (‘7 grams’) therapy, or psilocybin (‘7 grams’) combined with CBT. They report that patients treated with psilocybin or CBT, or the combined approach, “showed significant improvements in depressive symptoms.”
Unfortunately, many of the particulars are left undisclosed, making its interpretation very difficult.
Read more on our website: psychedelicalpha.com/news/p%…
