(NewsNation) — The psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms can influence your brain for weeks, a new study found.
Experts say the study helps explain why taking psilocybin — the active ingredient in the drug — can result in a distorted sense of space, time and self during a trip, as well as explain the mechanism by which it can help treat severe depression.
The study was conducted by looking at dozens of brain scans produced by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who gave psilocybin to participants in a study before sending them into a functional M.R.I. scanner.
The heat maps of the brain activity, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, offer a rare glimpse into the neural storm associated with mind-altering drugs.
The research could also help companies who are testing novel psychedelics and similar non-hallucinogenic drugs, according to Dr. Joshua Siegel, a co-author of the study.
“It could help to determine if a novel drug is hitting the right targets and to decide what is the optimal dose,” Siegel said.
The study was conducted with seven healthy adults who were given either a single dose of psilocybin or a placebo in the form of methylphenidate, the generic version of the amphetamine Ritalin. A total of 18 brain scans were taken from each participant, taken before, during and after the initial dosing.
While participants’ brain scans largely returned to normal the day after taking psilocybin, the study noted a reduction in communication between the default mode network and the anterior hippocampus – a part of the brain critical for memory and perceptions of space and time – lasted for three weeks after the dose.