Psilocybin works by scrambling a key brain network Brain scans show the drug disrupts the default mode network, a collection of regions that synchronize when the brain isn’t engaged in a specific task Most effects wear off with the drug, but small differences persist for weeks THURSDAY, July 18, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- “Magic” mushrooms achieve their psychedelic effects by temporarily scrambling a brain network involved in introspective thinking like daydreaming and remembering, a new study reports. Brain scans of people who took psilocybin -- the psychedelic drug in ‘shrooms -- revealed that the substance causes profound and widespread temporary changes to the brain’s default mode network. These findings provide an explanation for psilocybin’s mind-bending effects, and could lay the groundwork for better understanding how the drug might be used to treat mental health conditions like depression, researchers said.
“There’s a massive effect initially, and when it’s gone, a pinpoint effect remains,” said co-senior study author , a professor of neurology with the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “That’s exactly what you’d want to see for a potential medicine.
” “You wouldn’t want people’s brain networks to be obliterated for days, but you also wouldn’t want everything to snap back to the way it was immediately,” Dosenbach added in a university news release. “You want an effect that lasts long enough to make a differenc.
