Welcome to the lab, everyone. I'm Jonathan Benan with the Institute of Human Anatomy, and today we're going to talk about how this, the human brain, is affected by psilocybin, also sometimes referred to as magic mushrooms.

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound that is often used for recreational purposes.

However, it has also gained significant interest for its effects on the brain and its potential therapeutic uses for conditions such as anxiety, depression, addiction, and PTSD.

So today, we'll obviously take a look at real human brains and explore what psilocybin does to certain areas of the brain, discuss what someone experiences while using psilocybin, and as I already alluded to, the potential long-term effects that psilocybin can have on someone's mental health, and of course, cover some important considerations with legality and safety.

It's going to be a magical one, so let's do this.

So before, before we look more at the brain and discuss the effects of psilocybin, I need to mention that psilocybin is listed as a schedule one drug and is illegal in most places throughout the United States.

However, there are locations where it has been decriminalized and even legalized, much of this due to some of the research showing some of its positive outcomes for mental health.

However, even though there are potential benefits for mental health with psilocybin, there are also some safety concerns and considerations that we'll need to discuss.

So this video is for educational purposes only and we are not suggesting that everyone should just go out and try psilocybin.

And with that being said, psilocybin is a hallucinogenic substance found in certain types of mushrooms, and when ingested, psilocybin is metabolized into psilocin by enzymes found in the intestine.

as well as in the liver, and even though I may use psilocybin and syosin somewhat interchangeably throughout the video, know that it is the pyosin that is the active converted compound of psilocybin that is responsible for the active effects.

Now, once ingested, it takes about 30 to 45 minutes for it to be absorbed by the gut, converted to syosin, and eventually pass through the blood brain barrier, and this is when people start to have what the recreational community often refers to as the trip, but I'll probably mostly refer to it as the journey or the psilocybin experience.

But once the psilocybin is in the brain, it primarily affects the brain by binding to serotonin receptors.

And for you receptor nerds out there, specifically the 5-HT2A receptor. There are many different serotonin receptors located within the brain, but there are two things that are really important for us to think about with psilocybin.

One, psilocybin has a strong affinity for this particular 5-HT2A receptor, and two, this receptor is concentrated in areas of the brain responsible for mood, perception, vision, and cognition.

And both of these facts account for the specific effects of psilocybin, and by stimulating these receptors, psilocybin alters the release of neurotransmitters and enhances synaptic plasticity, which you could think of the brain's ability to form new neural connections.

And this is particularly important for therapeutic outcomes because increased synaptic plasticity can help to what you might think of as rewiring your brain or even rewiring maladaptive neural pathways associated with conditions like anxiety, depression, addiction, and PTSD.

So let's talk about some of the specific areas of the brain affected by psilocybin because this will help us to explain some of the experiences that people have while on their journey.

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And let's get back to psilocybin and the brain. The first area, of the brain that we'll discuss that is affected by psilocybin is the prefrontal cortex, and you can see me tracing the prefrontal cortex here on the brain, and the prefrontal cortex is involved in decision-making, personality expression, and moderating social behavior.

Psilocybin interaction with this region can lead to altered judgment and behavior, enhancing your willingness to express and release certain thoughts and emotions, which can result in introspection.

Also, while under the influence of psilocybin, the prefrontal cortex shows increased connectivity with other brain regions.

This heightened interconnectivity is believed to facilitate the emotional and cognitive insights that many users experience during a psilocybin session or journey.

And just keep this idea of heightened interconnectivity in the back of your minds for a little bit later on in our discussion.

The visual cortex is also affected, and that is this area here located within the occipital lobe, and as the name implies, the visual cortex is going to be responsible for processing visual information.

Psilocybin significantly affects this area, leading to enhanced visual perception. This can create the perception of visual stimuli that aren't actually present in the external environment, and this is often described as intricate and often kaleidoscopic visuals, with users also reporting that they see intensified colors, intricate patterns, and heightened visual clarity.

The amygdala and hippocampus are structures in the brain that are crucial for memory and emotional processing, and therefore play key roles in how we process and store emotional memories.

Psilocybin affects both of these structures and can lead to enhanced emotional sensitivity and the ability to potentially revisit and reprocess traumatic memories in a new light.

So in other words, this could potentially help individuals access and process repressed memories, which can be useful in psychotherapy for trauma and anxiety disorders.

The last area of the brain that I want to mention that is affected by psilocybin is actually a network of brain regions referred to as the default mode network.

The default mode network is active when the mind is at rest and not focused on the external environment, like when your mind is wandering or daydreaming.

This network is also associated with self-reflection and self-referential introspective thoughts, or the ego.

Now, at about 2 to 3 hours into a psilocybin journey, people will peak, and especially at the higher doses, this peak can be associated with a feeling of anxiety or ego dissolution, or what many in the recreational world may refer to as ego death.

People who have experienced this describe it as a feeling of losing oneself, and it can even be described as feeling like a form of dying in which one lets go of their sense of self and identity.

Now that may sound quite scary, and yes, some do describe it as scary and terrifying, but others have described it as eye-opening, cathartic, and even fulfilling, and this is thought to occur because psilocybin disrupts the normal functioning of the default mode network, again leading to a reduced sense of self and ego dissolution.

This is also thought to contribute to the profound, often mystical experiences reported by users, but from a clinical perspective, the disruption of the default mode network can potentially help individuals break free from rigid patterns of thought, allowing for more flexible, open-minded approaches to ideas, perceptions, and problem solving, which could be beneficial for treating things like obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, and depression.

So we've now talked about individual regions or networks of the brain and how psilocybin affects each of these regions. But if you recall, I mentioned that we wanted to keep something in the back of our minds, and that was psilocybin's ability to enhance synaptic plasticity and to enhance this interconnectivity between brain regions.

Psilocybin has this powerful ability to enhance the connection between regions of the brain that are not normally as connected, creating a form of something called synesthesia.

And synesthesia is a perception in which stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to an involuntary experience in a second sensory pathway.

For example, people on psilocybin or on a psilocybin journey will often report seeing different geometric shapes and colors, and if they are listening to music, the music seems to almost create the images or change the shape, movement, or colors of the images that they are seeing in a way that seems linked to the music.

So in other words, this is like emerging of the senses or a merging of certain brain pathways that are not ordinarily linked or merged together in this particular way.

So let's go into a little bit more detail on how psilocybin may actually work to help with certain mental health conditions.

Recent studies have shown that psilocybin can significantly reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, particularly in treatment resistant cases.

Psilocybin assisted therapy involves guided sessions where participants take a controlled dose and explore their thoughts and emotions with a therapist's support.

And this is a good time for us to discuss the idea of set and setting, the environment and mindset in which psilocybin is consumed can significantly affect the experience.

A safe, supportive setting is important for a positive outcome, particularly in a therapeutic context set refers to the mindset and the mental state a person is bringing to their session, like thoughts, mood, and expectations.

Setting is the setting or location they are having the experience in, the nature of the room, are they lying down, are they covering their eyes, type of music, and this also includes the other person that is present.

Again, this needs to be a safe place, ideally with an experienced clinician that is not also taking psilocybin, so that they can be available to assist this person through their journey if or when that is needed.

And again, there are multiple studies that have shown positive outcomes for anxiety and depression.

One that was conducted at Johns Hopkins University found that a single high dose of psilocybin produced substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in participants with life-threatening cancer, and these effects persisted for up to six months in many of the participants.

They believe that these effects may be in part due to the mystical type experiences people were having, suggesting a profound change in the participants' outlook on life.

Another study done by Imperial College London showed that psilocybin could almost reset the brains of patients with severe depression, leading to improvements in mood and cognition, and the brain imaging revealed that psilocybin affected the default mode network, which is often overactive in depression.

Psilocybin's ability to help reprocess traumatic memories also makes it a promising treatment for PTSD.

The altered state of consciousness allows individuals to confront and integrate traumatic experiences in a supportive setting.

And one of the ways this is thought to work is that by reducing the activity in the amygdala, that emotional fear center of the brain, psilocybin helps patients revisit traumatic memories without the usual overwhelming emotional response, and this process, combined with therapeutic support, can lead to lasting reductions in PTSD symptoms.

Studies have also demonstrated that psilocybin-assisted therapy can lead to improvements with addiction, and the mechanism of how this is thought to occur also builds off the information we have previously learned through increasing neuroplasticity and by disrupting the default mode network.

Psilocybin can reduce the rigid, self-referential thinking patterns often associated with addictive behaviors. Additionally, the profound psychological experiences during a session can lead to significant emotional and cognitive insights, helping individuals confront and process the underlying psychological factors that are contributing to their addiction.

So, although psilocybin has shown promise in various therapeutic settings, it's important to acknowledge its potential negative effects.

Some users may experience bad trips, which can include intense fear, paranoia, and anxiety.

These experiences can be quite distressing and may lead to long-term psychological impacts if they're not managed properly. In addition, psilocybin can cause physical effects such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and even muscle weakness.

Also, the dosing can be challenging, especially in recreational settings, because it can be difficult to know exactly how much psilocybin someone is getting per mushroom or per weight of mushroom.

The amount of actual psilocybin in each mushroom can vary amongst different mushroom types, with the content of psilocybin ranging anywhere from about 0.5 to 2%.

And the challenge with this is that the average recreational user does not have an exact way to know this percentage.

So, let's say we had a mushroom that contained 1% of psilocybin.

If that whole mushroom weighed 1 gram, that means there would be about 10 mg of psilocybin in that.

mushroom, but let's say the mushroom contains 2%, that would essentially double the dose of psilocybin, which could be problematic using this in a recreational setting where you can't control for the exact dosing like you can in therapeutic settings.

Moderate doses of psilocybin are considered two to three grams if you're weighing by mushroom, which would be about 20 to 30 milligrams if we're using that 1%, whereas a high dose, which is often referred to as the hero's dose in the recreational world, is over five grams.

And something else that is very important to consider is that for those with a predis position for certain mental health conditions like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, psilocybin can exacerbate symptoms or even trigger the onset of these conditions.

So it pretty much would be contraindicated with someone that has a history of these conditions or has an immediate family member with one of these conditions.

So it is crucial to approach psilocybin with caution and ensure it is used in a safe and therapeutic environment where a clinician could screen for contraindications and assist someone on this mind-altering journey.

And as always, thanks for watching and supporting the channel.

Channel, everyone, hopefully you learned some cool things about psilocybin today. And if you're interested in AG1, we have that link in the description below.

Let us know what you thought about the video in the comments, and we'll see you soon.

What Psilocybin Does to Your Brain | Can It Improve Mental Health?

The Institute of Human Anatomy is a private human cadaver laboratory that educates health, fitness, and medical professionals on human anatomy and physiology using human cadavers.

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What Psilocybin Does to Your Brain | Can It Improve Mental Health?

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