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Don’t psychedelics just calm you down?
Not necessarily — but the question these researchers, Praachi Tiwari et al., from Cornell University wanted to answer was how precisely — or what specifically happens in the brain to lower anxiety in some psychedelics?
OK and with what psychedelic?
They used a psychedelic called DOI that is a so-called serotonergic psychedelic. This, similar to psilocybin, mescalin, and LSD, targets the serotonin system in the brain.
Isn’t serotonin related to mood?
Yes, it is, but this neurotransmitter and modulator is involved in multiple processes.
And what did these researchers find?
Well, they found that DOI activates a specific type of neuron in a subregion of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is often associated with memory and navigation.
Activate — shouldn’t it be quieting neurons?
Yes and no. This activated so-called interneurons which connect different neurons and this resulted in quieting neighbouring neurons. This follows on from research that showed that anxiety in animals is also associated with communication between the ventral hippocampus and the amygdala our emotional and fear processing “centres”.
