Social cognition is a crucial factor influencing development, progress, and treatment of psychiatric disorders. However, social cognition skills are insufficiently targeted by current treatment approaches. In particular, patients suffering from depression show an increased negative reaction to social exclusion and deficits in empathy. The 5HT-1A/2A receptor ...
The serotonin (5-Hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) 2A receptor represents one of the most striking examples where functional selectivity (or ligand-biased signaling) is transduced in distinct behaviours. This receptor is the primary target of psychedelic hallucinogens such as lysergic acid diethylamine, mescaline and psilocybin, which reproduce some of the core sympt...
Hallucinogens have been part of spiritual practice for millennia, but controversy surrounding their mind-manifesting effects led to their proscription by the mid-20th century, largely without evidence of harm or toxicity and despite nascent data suggesting therapeutic utility in treating depressive illnesses. This review explores their pharmacodynamic action...
The involvement of the serotonin system in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia has been elucidated by experiments with hallucinogens. Application of a hallucinogen to humans leads to changes in perception, cognition, emotions, and induction of psychotic-like symptoms that resemble symptoms of schizophrenia. In rodent studies, their acute administration affe...
The serotonin 5-HT(2A) receptor is a primary target of psychedelic hallucinogens such as lysergic acid diethylamine, mescaline, and psilocybin, which reproduce some of the core symptoms of schizophrenia. An incompletely resolved paradox is that only some 5-HT(2A) receptor agonists exhibit hallucinogenic activity, whereas structurally related agonists with co...
The serotonin (5-HT) and glutamate (Glu) neurotransmitter systems are suspected in the etiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia, as well as in the mechanism of action of antipsychotic drugs. A high affinity for the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor is a common characteristic of all atypical antipsychotics. Hallucinogenic 5-HT2A agonists, such as lysergic acid d...
Psychedelic drugs produce profound changes in consciousness, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms for this remain unclear. Spontaneous and induced oscillatory activity was recorded in healthy human participants with magnetoencephalography after intravenous infusion of psilocybin--prodrug of the nonselective serotonin 2A receptor agonist and classic ...
Drugs that modulate serotonin (5-HT) synaptic concentrations impact neurogenesis and hippocampal (HPC)-dependent learning. The primary objective is to determine the extent to which psilocybin (PSOP) modulates neurogenesis and thereby affects acquisition and extinction of HPC-dependent trace fear conditioning. PSOP, the 5-HT2A agonist 25I-NBMeO and the 5-HT2A...
Epidemiological studies indicate that maternal influenza viral infection increases the risk for schizophrenia in the adult offspring. The serotonin and glutamate systems are suspected in the etiology of schizophrenia, as well as in the mechanism of action of antipsychotic drugs. The effects of hallucinogens, such as psilocybin and mescaline, require the sero...
BackgroundRecent findings suggest that the serotonergic system and particularly the 5-HT2A/1A receptors are implicated in visual processing and possibly the pathophysiology of visual disturbances including hallucinations in schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease.MethodsTo investigate the role of 5-HT2A/1A receptors in visual processing the effect of the hallu...
Binocular rivalry refers to the fluctuations in visual awareness/suppression that occur when different images are simultaneously presented to each eye. To explore the role of serotonin (5-HT) in binocular rivalry, this study investigated the affects of the hallucinogenic 5-HT1A&2A receptor agonist psilocybin (the active compound in “magic mushrooms”), alone ...
Increasing evidence suggests a link between attention, working memory, serotonin (5-HT) and prefrontal cortex activity. In an attempt to tease out the relationship between these elements, this study tested the effects of the hallucinogenic 5-HT1A/2A receptor agonist psilocybin alone and after pretreatment with the 5-HT2A antagonist ketanserin on multiple obj...
N,N-dipropyltryptamine (DPT) is a synthetic tryptamine hallucinogen which has been used psychotherapeutically in humans, but has been studied preclinically only rarely. In the present studies, DPT was tested in a drug-elicited head-twitch assay in mice, and in rats trained to discriminate lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), N,N-dimethyl-4-phosphoryloxytryptami...
It has been observed that agents with agonist activity at 5-HT2A receptors prevent neurotoxicity induced by the non-competitive NMDA antagonist, dizocilpine (MK-801). Subsequent behavioral studies reported complete antagonism by LSD and DOM of the stimulus effects of the related NMDA antagonist, phencyclidine [PCP]. The present study sought to extend those o...
Schizophrenia patients exhibit impairments in prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle response. Hallucinogenic 5-HT(2A) receptor agonists are used for animal models of schizophrenia because they mimic some symptoms of schizophrenia in humans and induce PPI deficits in animals. Nevertheless, one report indicates that the 5-HT(2A) receptor agonist psilocybin ...
Hallucinogenic psilocybin is known to alter the subjective experience of time. However, there is no study that systematically investigated objective measures of time perception under psilocybin. Therefore, we studied dose-dependent effects of the serotonin (5-HT)2A/1A receptor agonist psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine) on temporal processin...
IntroductionPharmacological challenges with hallucinogens are used as models for psychosis in experimental research. The state induced by glutamate antagonists such as phencyclidine (PCP) is often considered as a more appropriate model of psychosis than the state induced by serotonergic hallucinogens such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin and N...
Increasing evidence suggests a link between attention, working memory, serotonin (5-HT), and prefrontal cortex activity. In an attempt to tease out the relationship between these elements, this study tested the effects of the hallucinogenic mixed 5-HT1A/2A receptor agonist psilocybin alone and after pretreatment with the 5-HT2A antagonist ketanserin. Eight h...