Nico Dosenbach, an associate professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, got to find out firsthand what happens to the brain when it's on psychedelics. For science, of course.
He got a high dose of psilocybin from his colleagues — what else are friends for? — and as he started tripping, entombed himself in the claustrophobic confines of an MRI machine. At first, Dosenbach actually didn't know whether he'd taken psilocybin or the stimulant Ritalin as a placebo, because his colleagues didn't tell him which one it'd be.
That is, until he felt his brain turn into a computer.
"I was the computer tablet, and my thoughts were like computer thoughts, which of course makes no sense," Dosenbach told CNN. "I was aware this was not normal, but it wasn't frightening."
This was done as part of a new study, published in the journal Nature and of which Dosenbach is a coauthor, to unlock the psychedelic secrets behind the active compound in magic mushrooms. Scientists — and dedicated trippers — have long wondered: how is it that psilocybin and drugs like it, like LSD, can distort our perception of space-time, induce ego death, and also perhaps be a promising therapeutic tool?
According to what the researchers found, the drug may be causing these mind-melting effects by disrupting a key network of areas in our brain — namely the ones that are involved in introspective thinking, like daydreaming and remembering. As the study's title puts it: "Psilocybin desynchronizes the human brain."
"The idea is that you're taking this system that's fundamental to the brain's ability to think about the self in relation to the world, and you're totally desynchronizing it temporarily," study lead author Joshu Siegel, an instructor in psychiatry at WUS, said in a statement about the work.
And the lasting effects this has on our lumps of gray matter appear to be positive from a therapeutic point of view, boosting what's known as plasticity, or our brain's ability to change and grow.
"In the short term, this creates a psychedelic experience," Siegel added. "The longer-term consequence is that it makes the brain more flexible and potentially more able to come into a healthier state."
The study was conducted with seven adult participants, including Dosenbach. They were given either a high, 25 milligram dose of psilocybin, or a dose of the mild stimulant Ritalin, and had their brains scanned in an MRI machine around 18 times before, during, and three weeks after their trip. Some of them also took another dose of psilocybin between 6 to 12 months later.
The scans showed the biggest disruption took place in the brain's "default mode," a network of regions responsible for our sense of self, space, and time. This can be a good thing: it's essentially making the connectivity of our brain functions more flexible.
From a psychotherapist's standpoint, this could also help us break out of our brain's bad habits, guiding us out of our doomy thought patterns into greener pastures. A key point is that this is best pursued with a professional — self-medicating isn't recommended, the researchers said.
Even better, the brain scans showed that these benefits in brain connectivity subtly persist weeks after the psychedelic experience.
"There's a massive effect initially, and when it's gone, a pinpoint effect remains," Dosenbach said in the statement. "That's exactly what you'd want to see for a potential medicine. You wouldn't want people's brain networks to be obliterated for days, but you also wouldn't want everything to snap back to the way it was immediately. You want an effect that lasts long enough to make a difference."
All told, the study has given us a hopeful glimpse at what's behind the magic of magic mushrooms — and exemplifies what the revived interest in the field of psychedelic medicine can do.
More on psychedelics: Therapists Warn That Taking Magic Mushrooms for Treatment Can Lead to Unwanted Romantic Feelings
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