Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics Conference

Source: beckleyfoundation.org via Aaron on Pinterest

http://www.horizonsnyc.org/site/

2012 Speakers

Alphabetical by last name:

• MATTHEW BAGGOTT, PH.D., “Beyond Fear: The Effects of MDMA in Humans”
• ALEXANDER BELSER, “The Rule of Three from NYU: (1) A patient speaks, (2) A proposed narrative study of patient experiences, and (3) Recent findings from the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study”
• AMY EMERSON, “MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD Research: Bridging Biology and Psychology”
• KEVIN FEENEY, J.D., “Ayahuasca & Law: International Perspective”
• CHARLES S. GROB, M.D., “Why Psychedelics Matter”
• ROMAN HANIS, “Amazonian Grass Roots Research on Entheogen-based healing of Physical Pathologies”
• JAMES KENT, “Psychedelic Information Theory: Mapping the Limits of Human Perception and Imagination”
• MARIAVITTORIA MANGINI, Ph.D., FNP, “Gender and Psychedelics: Exploring Women’s Experience”
• RALPH METZNER, PH.D., “Psychoactive Substances in Shamanism and Psychotherapy”
• SIDARTA RIBEIRO, PH.D., “Seeing with the Eyes Shut: Neural Basis of Enhanced Visual Imagery following Ayahuasca Ingestion”

Mind Medicine - Does fear have an off switch?

“We’ve learned a fair amount of the circuitry that’s involved in generating the initial fear response. We really know relatively little about the circuitry that’s involved in turning it off”   (Richard Davidson, Neuroscientist). 

Is there a reason why this has been neglected? 

Protesters caught on newsprint at Occupy

"Using cannabinoids to overcome fear in the brain"
by Christie Wilcox
Scientific American

" ...in a study published this week in Molecular Psychiatry, researchers from Duke university have found that marijuana-like compounds and the enzyme that degrades them may be the key to understanding fear’s off switch."


http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/2012/06/12/overcoming-fear-in-the-brain/



Why it's illegal to take drugs? Psychedelics might open the soul and motivate it against the greed machine? Marijuana might block out fear so that revolution becomes a possibility. We live in fear; of war, of hunger, of our own anxiety. Some drugs could propel us into a society of equality and compassion.


"You may say that I'm a dreamer..." 

Poppy-cocked

     Experiments on neurons show the ability to control the dopamine response.  This seems quite the breakthrough seeing that the dopamine receptors themselves were only discovered in 1958 by Arvid carlsson.

Artwork by Shirley Novak

Study Shines Light on Brain Mechanism that Controls Reward Enjoyment
Science Daily
by

     "GABA neurons located in the VTA are just microns away from dopamine and are negative regulators of dopamine funtion," Stuber proposes. "When they become active, their basic job is to suppress dopamine release. A dysfunction in these GABA neurons might potentially underlie different aspects of neuropsychiatric illness, such as depression. Thus, we could think of them as a new physiological target for various aspects of neuropsychiatric diseases."

UNC study coauthors include Ruud van Zessen and Jana L. Phillips. 

Coauthor Evgeny A. Budygin is at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. 

Finally some public scientific support! Ecstasy doesn't eat your brain

No Brain Damage From Ecstasy, New Research Shows
The Huffington Post

Highlights:
"Contrary to long-held opinion, ecstasy, the popular rave-culture drug, may not harm your brain... 
Studies have also looked into MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a possible treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The idea is to provide at least a brief experience of what life feels like without the aftermath of trauma, to provide a state in which learning can occur."




For Full Article see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/20/ecstacy-doesnt-damage-the_n_825704.html


Hopefully such research will pave the way for more open policies on scientific drug studies. Propaganda cannot dominate in a world of information. Keep your heads up and your brains healthy!

Jonathan's Cochlear Implant Activation 8 months old, right ear

What a beautiful gift thanks to technology we can witness in real time the significance of sound on human understanding and well being!

absolutely breathtaking

Musicians Less Likely to Experience Age-Related Changes in the Auditory Cortex

ScienceDaily 
Nov. 16, 2010 

"During periods of attentive listening, the auditory cortices of older musicians responded the same as those of younger adults, whereas older non-musicians showed typical age-related changes. The researchers note that the musicians spend much of their time paying attention to the details of sound, and this experience may be important for sparing auditory cortex responses."

"Our findings suggest that musical training, which is widely available, may enhance neural connections in the auditory cortex and thus might be useful in preventing age-related changes that contribute to hearing difficulties" Benjamin Zendel

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101116100320.htm

Brain Sand ( corpora arenacea)

Mind Hacks

Highlights:

Taken from the Wikipedia entry on 'brain sand':

Corpora arenacea (or brain sand) are calcified structures in the pineal gland and other areas of the brain such as the choroid plexus. Older organisms have numerous corpora arenacea, whose function, if any, is unknown. Concentrations of "brain sand" increase with age, so the pineal gland becomes increasingly visible on X-rays over time, usually by the third or fourth decade. They are sometimes used as anatomical landmarks in radiological examinations.

Chemical analysis shows that they are composed of calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, magnesium phosphate, and ammonium phosphate. Recently, calcite deposits have been described as well.

French philosopher René Descartes famously concluded that the mind and the brain existed as entirely separate entities (a position now known as Cartesian dualism) and believed that pineal gland was the point at which the two interacted.

This was due to the fact that that, unlike most other structures in the brain, there is only one pineal gland and it is located exactly along the midline.

As Descartes largely thought of the mind and soul as the same thing, I'd like to think he would have called these calcified particles 'soul sand' had he known about them.

If you want some more details on 'brain sand', of which we know very little, this large abstract of a scientific study has a wealth of information.

http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2010/06/brain_sand.html

Dopamine System in Highly Creative People Similar to That Seen in Schizophrenics, Study Finds

Highlights: "New research shows a possible explanation for the link between mental health and creativity. By studying receptors in the brain, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have managed to show that the dopamine system in healthy, highly creative people is similar in some respects to that seen in people with schizophrenia."



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100518064610.htm

"Auditory Neurons In Humans Far More Sensitive To Fine Sound Frequencies Than Most Mammals"

   Does this not imply that sound and music are crucial to the evolution of consciousness? 

Highlights: "The results surprised the researchers. A single auditory neuron from humans showed an amazing sensitivity to distinguish between very subtle frequency differences, down to a tenth of an octave. This compared to a sensitivity of about one octave in the cat, about a third of an octave on average in rats, and half to one octave in the macaque.

"This is remarkable selectivity," said Fried, who is also the co-director of UCLA's Seizure Disorder Center. "It is indeed a mystery why such resolution in humans came to be. Why did we develop this? Such selectivity is not needed for speech comprehension, but it may have a role in musical skill. The three percent frequency differences that can be detected by single neurons may explain the fact that even musically untrained people can detect such frequency differences."

"There is also evidence that frequency discrimination in humans correlates with various cognitive skills, including working memory and the capability to learn, but more research is needed to clarify this puzzle."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080110163845.htm

Medical science needs your brain

        After reading Robert Jourdain's Music, the Brain and Ecstasy I found myself carried away by the uncertainty lying in the tangle of nerves at the nape of my neck. The transformation of vibration to sound, from information to understanding, is but a mystical light show to our primitive eyes. Once I realized that the answer to my burning questions could not be seen alive (with current affordable technology) I quickly called my mother and told her with grave persistence.... if anything happens to me, donate my brain to music science.
    
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/today/tomfeilden/2009/01/medical_science_needs_your_bra.html

Neurons That Fire Together Wire Together

by Roger Dooley, Neuromarketing

Highlights: "This phenomenon has profound implications for many areas of brain science. Researchers have found that brain maps (the locations of the brain that correspond to individual body parts) can be altered by training. One experiment attached two fingers of a monkey together for a period of months so that they acted, in essence, as a single finger; tests showed that the previously separate brain mappings for the two fingers had indeed become one."

Neurons That Fire Together Wire Together

Loud music prolongs ecstasy's effects on the brain

by Charnicia Huggins

Highlights: "In the absence of the loud music, low doses of MDMA did not affect the rats' brain activity compared with rats given placebo. When combined with the loud music, however, low doses of the drug were associated with decreased brain activity, the report indicates...

Long-term experiments showed that the reduced brain activity among rats given the higher dose of the drug persisted for up to five days, the researchers note. Brain activity returned to normal after one day in rats given a similar dose of the drug who were not exposed to the loud music."

http://www.ezilon.com/information/article_16144.shtml

Making Music Boosts Brain's Language Skills

Making Music Boosts Brain's Language Skills

Bobby McFerrin hacks your brain with music | Video on TED.com

Bobby McFerrin hacks your brain with music | Video on TED.com

Singing 'rewires' damaged brain

By Victoria Gill  Science reporter, BBC News, San Diego

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8526699.stm