Update
THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE
LANDMARK STUDY REVEALS THE
EFFECT OF LSD ON THE BRAIN
PHOTOS: GEORGINA CAMMALLERI, JIRI REZAC /EYEVINEFor the first time, scientists have used brain scanners to uncover what happens in the brain
under the influence of LSD, more than 70 years after the drug was first synthesised. Zoe
Cormier investigates
Volunteer
preparing
to enter the
scanner“THE ONLY
WAY TO STUDY
CONSCIOUSNESS IS
TO CHANGE IT”
Prof David Nutt led the research into the effects of
LSD on the brainA team led by Imperial College’s
Prof David Nutt has discovered
that brain networks become
‘desegregated’ under the influence
of LSD (also known as ‘acid’).
Regions of the brain that do not
normally communicate with each
other suddenly do so.
“The brain becomes much more
integrated in a strange sort of way,”
said Nutt. “You can pull together
things that you wouldn’t normally.
This is why LSD could be so
powerful in treating conditions
where the brain has become
‘locked in’, such as alcoholism or
depression.”
“You get increased connectivity
because you have dampened
down the control centres,” added
researcher Robin Carhart-Harris.
The team picked 20 subjects
who had previously used
psychedelics, to minimise the risk
of them having a bad experience.
Each was given LSD, then spent an
hour in an MRI scanner while three
different imaging techniques
gathered data. They were then put
through a number of cognitive
tests.
Tom Shutte was one of those
brave enough to take LSD in a
claustrophobic brain scanner.
“Every now and then I did think,
‘What am I doing in here?’” he said
later. “Sounds were really
unpleasant, loud, unpredictable
and aggressive. Sometimes it took
a lot of willpower to keep it
together. Plus, some of the
questions were ver y strange: ‘Didyour ego dissolve?’ Ultimately, if
me spending a difficult hour in a
scanner in Cardiff can help
someone suffering acute trauma
down the line, it’s worth it.”
Beyond investigating the use of
psychedelics as medication for
ailments such as post-traumatic
stress disorder, depression and
addiction, the ultimate purpose of
this work is probing the nature of
consciousness itself, explained
Nutt. “This is core neuroscience. It
is about humanity at its deepest
level. And the only way to study
consciousness is to change it.”
Others are yet to be convinced.“This study doesn’t tell us much
about the therapeutic value of this
drug, though it may give us
suggestions to investigate further,”
said Glen Hanson, former acting
director of the US National Institute
On Drug Abuse, who’s published
over 150 scientific papers
exploring how drugs affect the
brain. “But LSD is a very dirty drug:
it is not particularly selective in
what it does. As a result, it can be
problematic for patients with
underlying psychiatric disorders.”
Organisations that fund
academic and medical research
seem to agree with Hanson. Nutt’s
team found it extremely hard to
acquire funding, and eventually
turned to crowdfunding to raise the
money. This ended up being a
roaring success, with 1,628 people
donating US$75,455 to the cause,
double the US$35,330 asked for.A BRIEF HISTORY OF LSD
The story of LSD, or lysergic acid
diethylamide, began in 1943 when
chemist Albert Hofmann was
tinkering in the laboratories of
Swiss pharmaceuticals company
Sandoz. He was developing drugs
to treat blood loss following
childbirth. When his fingers
touched a bit of LSD-25 – a drug
he’d first synthesised five years
earlier – the world began to
shimmer. With such a profound
capacity to change the way we
see, feel and think, Hofmann
believed LSD could become a
valuable psychiatric tool.SPECIAL REPORT