All Articles by Dario Dieguez, Jr, PhD
Dr. Dieguez spent over 10 years writing about, obtaining funding for, and conducting neuroscience research. He has worked as a Science Writer at NIH's Center for Scientific Review and the Office of the NIH Director. For several years, he worked as an educational consultant and freelance science writer, with multiple clients in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Germany. He has taught multiple courses in biology and psychology and currently runs a national research program at a non-profit organization.
Drug-Induced Mystical Experience
Psilocybin, a naturally occurring hallucinogen, is the main psychoactive component of psilocybe and other hallucinogenic mushrooms (so called “magic mushrooms”). Like other classic hallucinogens, such as d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and mescaline, psilocybin exerts its psychoactive effects through a sub-type of serotonin receptors (called 5-HT2a) in the brain. In some cultures, psilocybin has historically been used in religious contexts -- likely for millennia. Psilocybin has a number of effects, including changes in perception, cognition, affect, and decision-making. Clinical research on psilocybin dates back to at least the 1950s, with variable effects on the perceived affective character of the experience. Research on psilocybin administration in humans has occurred in psychotherapeutic contexts in terminally ill cancer patients dating back to the 1970s and continues today. A surprising new study reveals that, under specific conditions, acute exposure to psilocybin can elicit long-lasting positive changes and increases in mystical-type experience.
The NeuroSocial Network
Social neuroscience is a rapidly growing discipline that examines the relationship between the brain and social behavior. The “social brain hypothesis” posits that, over evolutionary time, living in large, social groups favored the physical growth of brain regions important for social behavior. In non-human primates, some evidence indicates that the size of the amygdala is related to social behavior. Little is known, however, about this relationship in humans. A provocative new study finds that the volume of a key component of the social brain, the amygdala, is directly related to the size and complexity of social networks in adult humans.
Imaging the Musical Brain
Humans experience pleasure from a variety of stimuli, including food, money, and psychoactive drugs. Such pleasures are largely made possible by a brain chemical called dopamine, which activates what is known as the mesolimbic system -- a network of interconnected brain regions that mediate reward. Most often, rewarding stimuli are biologically necessary for survival (such as food), can directly stimulate activity of the mesolimbic system (such as some psychoactive drugs), or are tangible items (such as money). However, humans can experience pleasure from more abstract stimuli, such as art or music, which do not fit into any of these categories.
The Neuroscience of Fear and Loathing
Fear is an innate emotion that is triggered by environmental stimuli perceived as potentially threatening or harmful. This emotion is so basic to human existence that its expression on a human face can be accurately recognized by anyone in the world. Thus, fear is a highly evolved, universal emotion whose existence is critical to survival.
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