Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Neural and subjective effects of inhaled DMT in natural settings

Carla Pallavicini, Federico Cavanna, Federico Zamberlan, Laura Alethia de la Fuente, Mauricio Arias, Celeste Romero, Robin Carhart-Harris, Christopher Timmermann, Enzo Tagliazucchi
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.19.258145
Carla Pallavicini
1Departamento de Física, Universidad de Buenos Aires and Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires (IFIBA – CONICET), Pabellón I, Ciudad Universitaria (1428), CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2Fundación para la lucha contra las enfermedades neurológicas de la infancia (FLENI), Montañeses 2325, C1428 CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: carlap@df.uba.ar enzo@df.uba.ar
Federico Cavanna
1Departamento de Física, Universidad de Buenos Aires and Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires (IFIBA – CONICET), Pabellón I, Ciudad Universitaria (1428), CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2Fundación para la lucha contra las enfermedades neurológicas de la infancia (FLENI), Montañeses 2325, C1428 CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Federico Zamberlan
1Departamento de Física, Universidad de Buenos Aires and Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires (IFIBA – CONICET), Pabellón I, Ciudad Universitaria (1428), CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Laura Alethia de la Fuente
1Departamento de Física, Universidad de Buenos Aires and Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires (IFIBA – CONICET), Pabellón I, Ciudad Universitaria (1428), CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Mauricio Arias
3Hospital General de Agudos Donación Francisco Santojanni, Pilar 950, C1408INH CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Celeste Romero
4Centro de Estudios de la Cultura Cannábica (CECCa), Humahuaca 3947, C1192ACA CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Robin Carhart-Harris
5Centre for Psychedelic Research, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, Kensington, London SW7 2DD, United Kingdom
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Christopher Timmermann
5Centre for Psychedelic Research, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, Kensington, London SW7 2DD, United Kingdom
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Enzo Tagliazucchi
1Departamento de Física, Universidad de Buenos Aires and Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires (IFIBA – CONICET), Pabellón I, Ciudad Universitaria (1428), CABA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: carlap@df.uba.ar enzo@df.uba.ar
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a short acting psychedelic tryptamine found naturally in many plants and animals. When combined with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, such as in the Amazonian brew known as ayahuasca, DMT becomes orally active and its effects are extended. Few studies to date addressed the neural and psychological effects of DMT alone, either administered intravenously or inhaled in freebase form, and none conducted in natural settings. We combined state-of-the-art wireless electroencephalography (EEG) with psychometric questionnaires to study the acute effects of inhaled DMT in 35 participants in natural settings, focusing on questions tuned to the advantages of conducting field research, including the effects of contextual factors (known as “set” and “setting”), the possibility of studying a comparatively large number of subjects, and the relaxed mental state of participants consuming DMT in familiar and comfortable settings. We observed that DMT significantly decreased the power of alpha (8-12 Hz) oscillations throughout all scalp locations, while simultaneously increasing power of delta (1-4 Hz) and gamma (30-40 Hz) oscillations. The pharmacokinetics of inhaled DMT was similar to intravenous administration, but we observed a faster return to baseline for power in the alpha band. Gamma power increases correlated with subjective reports indicative of mystical-type experiences. DMT also increased/decreased global synchrony and metastability in the gamma/alpha band, and resulted in widespread increases in signal complexity measured using the Lempel-Ziv algorithm. These results are consistent with previous studies of psychedelic action in the human brain, while at the same time suggesting potential EEG markers of mystical-type experiences in natural settings. In summary, we conducted one of the first field studies on the neural and psychological effects of a serotonergic psychedelic, yielding new insights and advancing our understanding of the translation between laboratory findings and those obtained in the contexts where these compounds are most frequently consumed.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted August 20, 2020.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Neural and subjective effects of inhaled DMT in natural settings
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Neural and subjective effects of inhaled DMT in natural settings
Carla Pallavicini, Federico Cavanna, Federico Zamberlan, Laura Alethia de la Fuente, Mauricio Arias, Celeste Romero, Robin Carhart-Harris, Christopher Timmermann, Enzo Tagliazucchi
bioRxiv 2020.08.19.258145; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.19.258145
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Neural and subjective effects of inhaled DMT in natural settings
Carla Pallavicini, Federico Cavanna, Federico Zamberlan, Laura Alethia de la Fuente, Mauricio Arias, Celeste Romero, Robin Carhart-Harris, Christopher Timmermann, Enzo Tagliazucchi
bioRxiv 2020.08.19.258145; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.19.258145

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (2533)
  • Biochemistry (4975)
  • Bioengineering (3486)
  • Bioinformatics (15229)
  • Biophysics (6908)
  • Cancer Biology (5395)
  • Cell Biology (7751)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (4539)
  • Ecology (7157)
  • Epidemiology (2059)
  • Evolutionary Biology (10233)
  • Genetics (7516)
  • Genomics (9790)
  • Immunology (4860)
  • Microbiology (13231)
  • Molecular Biology (5142)
  • Neuroscience (29464)
  • Paleontology (203)
  • Pathology (838)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (1465)
  • Physiology (2142)
  • Plant Biology (4754)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1013)
  • Synthetic Biology (1338)
  • Systems Biology (4014)
  • Zoology (768)