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by sbinthree
3171 days ago
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The disturbing aspect of depression treatments that "reset" things is the meaning of reset at a nervous system level. In a lot of cases, that basically means "memory smoothing" or "neuron unlearning". Imagine how great it would be if all your traumatic memories felt mild or you forgot them entirely? Consider the downside of that with respect to positive memories. Especially those nice feelings you get when you conquer something was previously impossible or very hard for you. SSRIs do this even more aggressively. Most of the time negative memories are easier to recall than positive ones. Unlearning negative memories can have really weird and bad consequences though in the context of learning. Presumably at least a percentage of negative learning is useful. That goes away when you "reset" your neurons in this manner. |
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"In a paper, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers describe patient-reported benefits lasting up to five weeks after treatment, and believe the psychedelic compound may effectively reset the activity of key brain circuits known to play a role in depression."
"Functional MRI imaging revealed reduced blood flow in areas of the brain, including the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped region of the brain known to be involved in processing emotional responses, stress and fear. They also found increased stability in another brain network, previously linked to psilocybin's immediate effects as well as to depression itself."
The phrase 'reset' is being bandied around a lot, but it sounds like the scope of the therapy is much smaller than the concept of 'resetting your brain'. Not to say that there isn't a negative impact like you say, but I think the compartmentalization of the brain is more complicated than "good memory/bad memory".
Imagine a drug that just reduced the impact of memories with (for lack of a better wording) 'chemical metadata' categorized as being a negative experience or negative feedback. That seems to be the goal with these types of research into the chemical intervention of PTSD and depression.
> Presumably at least a percentage of negative learning is useful. That goes away when you "reset" your neurons in this manner.
Well, maybe not. The learning that was the result of using the negative feedback is already in-place. It may be more difficult in the future to recall the negative feedback that lead to the learning taking place, but I have a hard time thinking that all the learning that is a result of that negative feedback will be nullified post-facto, since it was already positively reinforced.
I guess we'll see!