Unlike other classic psychedelics, such as LSD or psilocybin, DMT's effects on the brain are relatively brief, lasting a matter of minutes, rather than hours. What we have seen with DMT is that activity in highly evolved areas and systems of the brain that encode especially high-level models becomes highly dysregulated under the drug, and this relates to the intense drug 'trip'." For example, like with optical illusions, when we're looking at something, some of what we're actually seeing is our brain filling in the blanks based on what we already know. Humans have unusually big brains and model an unusually large amount of the world. "One increasingly popular view is that much of brain function is concerned with modelling or predicting its environment. The study, published in the journal PNAS, is the first to track brain activity before, during and after the DMT experience in such detail.ĭr Chris Timmerman, from the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, and first author on the study, said: "This work is exciting as it provides the most advanced human neuroimaging view of the psychedelic state to-date.
It occurs in trace amounts in the human body and is the major psychoactive compound in ayahuasca - the psychedelic brew prepared from vines and leaves and used in ceremonies in south and central America.
The changes to brain activity were most prominent in areas linked with 'higher level' functions, such as imagination.ĭMT is a potent psychedelic found naturally in certain plants and animals. During the immersive DMT experience there was increased connectivity across the brain, with more communication between different areas and systems. In a study at Imperial College London, detailed brain imaging data from 20 healthy volunteers revealed how the potent psychedelic compound, DMT (dimethyltryptamine), alters brain function.
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