'People leave this world and break through into another', study on effect of consuming a hallucinogenic drug

Scientists have revealed previously unreported effects of a compound called DMT (or dimethyltryptamine), the substance which, once consumed, produces extraordinary psychic effects on an individual. DMT is found in the Amazonian drink Ayahuasca, made from the flowering shrub of Psychotria viridis plant.

How the study was conducted?

For the latest study, Chris Timmermann, head of the DMT research group at Imperial College London, recruited 20 volunteers who received a 20mg injection of DMT and a placebo on separate visits to the lab. All were reportedly screened to ensure their physical and mental suitability for the study.

The scientists recorded the brain activity of the participants before, during and after the drug took hold of their bodies.

What do the results say?

The results were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They provide the most advanced picture yet of the human brain on psychedelics.

The recordings show how the brain’s normal hierarchical organisation breaks down, electrical activity becomes anarchic, and connectivity between regions soars, particularly those handling "higher level"functions such as imagination, which is scientifically proven to have evolved most recently in humans.

The recordings reveal a profound impact across the brain, particularly in areas that are highly evolved in humans and instrumental in planning, language, memory, complex decision-making and imagination.

"At the dose we use, it is incredibly potent," Robin Carhart-Harris, a professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco was quoted as saying by The Guardian. "People describe leaving this world and breaking through into another that is incredibly immersive and richly complex, sometimes being populated by other beings that they feel might hold special power over them, like gods."

He added: "What we have seen is that DMT breaks down the basic networks of the brain, causing them to become less distinct from each other. We also see the major rhythms of the brain – that serve a largely inhibitory, constraining function – break down, and in concert, brain activity becomes more entropic or information-rich."

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But while the study revealed an unprecedented view of the brain on DMT, the researchers believe there is more to learn.

"We suspect that while the newer, more evolved aspects of the brain dysregulate under DMT, older systems in the brain may be disinhibited,"Carhart-Harris was further quoted as saying by The Guardian. "A similar kind of thing happens in dreaming. This is just the beginning in cracking the question of how DMT works to alter consciousness so dramatically."

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