[nikkwong]

Yeah, this is super interesting. The obvious follow up for me is what implication this desynchronization has on cognition. People who have done a lot of psilocybin tend to be quite a bit 'different' at least in my experience—they tend to be more reserved, maybe a bit more thoughtful, slower, introspective, etc.

But what causes this change in personality? People who have done a lot of psilocybin seem to be a lot less worried, a lot less neurotic, and a lot less wrapped up in the ego than those who haven't. After all, who wants to be wrapped up and ruminating based on the content of their thoughts? I've always thought of this behavior by those who have used psilocybin to be a feature, not a bug—as if they're enlightened.

But if, say, this newfound personality is the result of a loss in functional connectivity—what does that tell us about how other markers of cognitive function have changed? Is strong FC a prerequisite for strong executive function or other measures of intelligence? The paper seems to suggest that the changes in FC are associated with the default mode network and maybe not other states of brain focus.

But will a macro dose of psilocybin, say—make someone better at their job? Maybe we don't know yet, and maybe there won't be a clear answer; there is a lot of heterogeneity in the way people think, and how they exploit their own cognitive abilities to provide value in the world—so maybe a loss in FC will mean different things to different individauls. But given the suggestion from this paper that the effects of psilocybin may be somewhat permanent, the answer to this question will be a very useful for those looking to benefit from this therapeutic.

[robwwilliams]

The study uses cool methods but they are still at very crude global level and the temporal resolution is poor. Functional synchrony (or para-synchrony) is more of an initial pointer to the much faster synaptic processing we really would love to understand better. the ither limit is that fMRI studies focus on relatively large chunks of cortex, but lots of critical changes are sub-cortical. I’d love to see a focus on thalamo-cortico and cortico-thalamic modulation. I suspect these connections are just as important as cortico-cortical and cortico-hippocampal connections.

Finally, there will be a great deal of individual differences. One story will not fit all of us.

[chiefalchemist]

Suggested reading:

"How to Change Your Mind" by Michael Pollan

https://michaelpollan.com/books/how-to-change-your-mind/

There's also a multi-part Netflix series based on the book.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80229847?preventIntent=true

[bongodongobob]

I completely disagree with your anecdotal premise.

[gorlilla]

Why? I only ask because I didn't find your anecdotal disagreement as having added to the conversation in any constructive manner.