14 May PSILOCYBIN INHIBITS THE PROCESSING OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS IN THE BRAIN | SCIENCE DAILY
A team at the Psychiatric University Hospital of Zurich, including Heffter board member Franz X. Vollenweider, found that psilocybin improves the mood of healthy individuals. According to the Zurich researchers, a moderate dose of psilocybin can lessen the effect of negative stimuli in the amygdala and other areas in the brain. The study could lead to new treatment options for people with depression.
“Emotions like fear, anger, sadness, and joy enable people to adjust to their environment and react flexibly to stress and strain and are vital for cognitive processes, physiological reactions, and social behavior. The processing of emotions is closely linked to structures in the brain, i.e. to what is known as the limbic system. Within this system the amygdala plays a central role — above all it processes negative emotions like anxiety and fear. If the activity of the amygdala becomes unbalanced, depression and anxiety disorders may develop.”
Link to original article | Biological Psychiatry
This article is published as a cover story in Biological Psychiatry (article in press)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00063223, Rainer Kraehenmann, Katrin H. Preller, Milan Scheidegger, Thomas Pokorny, Oliver G. Bosch, Erich Seifritz, Franz X. Vollenweider, Psilocybin-Induced Decrease in Amygdala Reactivity Correlates with Enhanced Positive Mood in Healthy Volunteers, Copyright Elsevier, 2014.