Abstract
Background Psychedelics have resurged in neuroscience and psychiatry with promising success in psychedelic-assisted therapy for the treatment of anxiety, depression, and addiction. At the cellular level, psychedelics elicit neuroplastic processes 24 hours after administration, priming neural circuits for change. The acute effects of psychedelics are well characterized with functional imaging and neural oscillations showing an increase in the entropy of spontaneous cortical activity.
Hypotheses We hypothesized that cortical-striatal oscillations recorded in rats would confirm the effects of psychedelics. We also hypothesized that brain stimulation delivered 24 hours after LSD administration would lead to different effects than brain stimulation alone.
Methods We recorded local field potential (LFP) oscillations from rats following lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or saline administration and determined if exposure to these treatments altered the effect of a targeted intervention (brain stimulation) 24 hours later.
Results We confirmed acutely decreased low frequency power across the brain when rats are given LSD. We also demonstrated these altered states return to baseline after 24 hours. Brain stimulation applied in this window of heightened neuroplasticity produced distinct shifts in brain state compared to brain stimulation applied 24 hours after saline.
Conclusions Despite the acute effects of LSD disappearing after 24 hours, there are still latent effects that synergize with brain stimulation to create different changes in brain activity compared to brain stimulation alone. Our findings are the first to suggest that psychedelics could have a role clinically in combination with brain stimulation to achieve enhanced effects on brain activity and clinical outcomes.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
