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Psychedelics, entropic brain theory, and the taxonomy of conscious states: a summary of debates and perspectives

Given their recent success in counseling and psychiatry, the dialogue around psychedelics has mainly focused on their applications for mental health. Insights from psychedelic research, however, are not limited to treating mental health, but also have much to offer our current understanding of consc...

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Autores principales: Rankaduwa, Sidath, Owen, Adrian M
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10072236/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37025356
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nc/niad001
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author Rankaduwa, Sidath
Owen, Adrian M
author_facet Rankaduwa, Sidath
Owen, Adrian M
author_sort Rankaduwa, Sidath
collection PubMed
description Given their recent success in counseling and psychiatry, the dialogue around psychedelics has mainly focused on their applications for mental health. Insights from psychedelic research, however, are not limited to treating mental health, but also have much to offer our current understanding of consciousness. The investigation of psychedelic states has offered new perspectives on how different aspects of conscious experience are mediated by brain activity; as such, much more has been learned about consciousness in terms of its phenomenology and potential mechanisms. One theory that describes how psychedelics influence brain activity is the “entropic brain theory” (EBT), which attempts to understand conscious states—normal and psychedelic—in terms of “brain entropy.” Given its wide explanatory reach, this theory has several implications for current debates in consciousness research, namely the issue of whether consciousness exists in levels vs. dimensions; whether the psychedelic state is itself a “higher” level of consciousness; and if so, whether psychedelics could be used to treat disorders of consciousness. To understand how psychedelics could possibly treat a minimally conscious or vegetative patient, one must first understand EBT and how this theory intersects with these ongoing debates. Thus, this article offers a formal summary of EBT, distilling its core principles and their implications for a theoretical model of consciousness. In response to their proposed use in treating disorders of consciousness, we emphasize the importance of “set” and “setting” in ascertaining the therapeutic value of psychedelics for vegetative and/or minimally conscious patients.
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spelling pubmed-100722362023-04-05 Psychedelics, entropic brain theory, and the taxonomy of conscious states: a summary of debates and perspectives Rankaduwa, Sidath Owen, Adrian M Neurosci Conscious Review Article Given their recent success in counseling and psychiatry, the dialogue around psychedelics has mainly focused on their applications for mental health. Insights from psychedelic research, however, are not limited to treating mental health, but also have much to offer our current understanding of consciousness. The investigation of psychedelic states has offered new perspectives on how different aspects of conscious experience are mediated by brain activity; as such, much more has been learned about consciousness in terms of its phenomenology and potential mechanisms. One theory that describes how psychedelics influence brain activity is the “entropic brain theory” (EBT), which attempts to understand conscious states—normal and psychedelic—in terms of “brain entropy.” Given its wide explanatory reach, this theory has several implications for current debates in consciousness research, namely the issue of whether consciousness exists in levels vs. dimensions; whether the psychedelic state is itself a “higher” level of consciousness; and if so, whether psychedelics could be used to treat disorders of consciousness. To understand how psychedelics could possibly treat a minimally conscious or vegetative patient, one must first understand EBT and how this theory intersects with these ongoing debates. Thus, this article offers a formal summary of EBT, distilling its core principles and their implications for a theoretical model of consciousness. In response to their proposed use in treating disorders of consciousness, we emphasize the importance of “set” and “setting” in ascertaining the therapeutic value of psychedelics for vegetative and/or minimally conscious patients. Oxford University Press 2023-04-04 /pmc/articles/PMC10072236/ /pubmed/37025356 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nc/niad001 Text en © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Review Article
Rankaduwa, Sidath
Owen, Adrian M
Psychedelics, entropic brain theory, and the taxonomy of conscious states: a summary of debates and perspectives
title Psychedelics, entropic brain theory, and the taxonomy of conscious states: a summary of debates and perspectives
title_full Psychedelics, entropic brain theory, and the taxonomy of conscious states: a summary of debates and perspectives
title_fullStr Psychedelics, entropic brain theory, and the taxonomy of conscious states: a summary of debates and perspectives
title_full_unstemmed Psychedelics, entropic brain theory, and the taxonomy of conscious states: a summary of debates and perspectives
title_short Psychedelics, entropic brain theory, and the taxonomy of conscious states: a summary of debates and perspectives
title_sort psychedelics, entropic brain theory, and the taxonomy of conscious states: a summary of debates and perspectives
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10072236/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37025356
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nc/niad001
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