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Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

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Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#61

Post by jonnycomputer »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #24
phreeza wrote: post #12

A note for people not familiar with the terminology - "functional connectivity" is a specific technical term that really just means temporal correlation between brain areas, as opposed to "structural connectivity" which refers to the actual neural pathways that are formed between brain areas. If you rephrase the headline as "Serotonin booster leads to increased correlation between activity in different brain areas" i…

The main reason it's not too exciting to me is much simpler. They tested it for 6 days. You can do all sorts of wonderful stuff with a drug for a few days. But for most drugs, the effects simply cease if you keep taking it due to tolerance. And there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of leeway to up the dose either because it's a laxative.

The brain adapts to new regimes; that's probably part of the anti-depressive effect of SSRIs, not the acute effects. For that reason, I agree that a study of connectivity over the longer-term would be more convincing.

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#62

Post by otikik »

DiscourseFan wrote: post #19

Something in our industrial processes must be screwing with people's serotonin levels because Psychedelics and other serotenergic drugs are becoming the defacto treatment method for a whole host of ailments. I personally suffer from IBS, migraines, sleeping problems, and mood swings, if I haven't taken a dose of psychedelics in the last 6 months. Now, getting regular exercise, eating well, staying hydrated, sleeping…

Physical exercise for me is primarily a way to make my body produce drugs, to be in a better mood and sleep better. All the other benefits are icing on the cake.

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#63

Post by mrelectric »

noduerme wrote: post #45
maliniakh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, actually all the improvements mentioned in the article reminiscence me of positive effects of psychedelics. They happen to act on serotonin receptors, too.

Do you mind if I ask you - how have you had an account here since 7/5/12 and you only have 1 karma point? I'm flattered that you're responding to my post.

People like their psydelic experiences

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#65

Post by maliniakh »

noduerme wrote: post #45
maliniakh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, actually all the improvements mentioned in the article reminiscence me of positive effects of psychedelics. They happen to act on serotonin receptors, too.

Do you mind if I ask you - how have you had an account here since 7/5/12 and you only have 1 karma point? I'm flattered that you're responding to my post.

Nice that you pointed it out, I had no idea about having 0 karma points nor I paid attention to it. Even nice that it flattered you. I just happen to be interested in psychedelics (not that I have ever tried them!). I just noticed that the drug is a 5HT agonist, just like most of the psychodelics are, and I jumped into the comments to see if anybody mentions it. I believe that psychdelics mostly act upon 5HT2a while this substance is for 5HT4 instead.

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#66

Post by 4gotunameagain »

ZunarJ5 wrote: post #54
ben_w wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100-150 years ago we were using heroin, cocaine, and morphine for such things as cough syrups, hay fever, cola. Ancient Romans used cannabis and opium for insomnia and earaches. Wild animals get drunk on rotten fruit, cats stone themselves on catnip. So you're not wrong to wonder why people take stuff, but none of that's new .

Just because it's one of my favourites, we even have evidence of it in rock art: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/psychedelic-mushroom-a...

Terence McKenna, a self proclaimed ethnobotanist, held the theory that higher intelligence emerged because of psychedelics, that our hunter gatherer ancestors had a very intimate relationship with psychedelic mushrooms.

Way out there, but very interesting nonetheless. I would recommend his book The food of the Gods

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#67

Post by Etheryte »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #24
phreeza wrote: post #12

A note for people not familiar with the terminology - "functional connectivity" is a specific technical term that really just means temporal correlation between brain areas, as opposed to "structural connectivity" which refers to the actual neural pathways that are formed between brain areas. If you rephrase the headline as "Serotonin booster leads to increased correlation between activity in different brain areas" i…

The main reason it's not too exciting to me is much simpler. They tested it for 6 days. You can do all sorts of wonderful stuff with a drug for a few days. But for most drugs, the effects simply cease if you keep taking it due to tolerance. And there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of leeway to up the dose either because it's a laxative.

> for most drugs, the effects simply cease if you keep taking it due to tolerance

I'm not sure that's the case in the broad sense. As a simple example, blood pressure medicine is taken daily for decades and it just keeps on giving.

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#68

Post by fargdarg »

noduerme wrote: post #45
maliniakh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, actually all the improvements mentioned in the article reminiscence me of positive effects of psychedelics. They happen to act on serotonin receptors, too.

Do you mind if I ask you - how have you had an account here since 7/5/12 and you only have 1 karma point? I'm flattered that you're responding to my post.

Hi

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#69

Post by xeonmc »

phreeza wrote: post #12

A note for people not familiar with the terminology - "functional connectivity" is a specific technical term that really just means temporal correlation between brain areas, as opposed to "structural connectivity" which refers to the actual neural pathways that are formed between brain areas. If you rephrase the headline as "Serotonin booster leads to increased correlation between activity in different brain areas" i…

Oh, that's disappointing. I was hoping for a drug that will finally help me understand how monads are just simply monoids in the category of endofunctors.

Re: Serotonin booster leads to increased functional brain connectivity

#70

Post by dustingetz »

vanderZwan wrote: post #38
code51 wrote: post #34

Could this potentially help schizophrenia, emotional regulation, impulsivity, reward processing, ADHD etc because of an improvement in functional connectivity?

I can't speak for any other illness mentioned, but from what I've been told as someone with ADHD a significant part of the "nature" side of it is caused by either reduced serotonin sensitivity, a faster-than-normal re-uptake of serotonin whenever it gets released (meaning it doesn't get to do its job), or some other disruption of how serotonin is supposed to function in the brain. So when it's caused by reduced sensi…

do you mean dopamine?
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