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The multimodal Ganzfeld-induced altered state of consciousness induces decreased thalamo-cortical coupling

Different pharmacologic agents have been used to investigate the neuronal underpinnings of alterations in consciousness states, such as psychedelic substances. Special attention has been drawn to the role of thalamic filtering of cortical input. Here, we investigate the neuronal mechanisms underlyin...

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Autores principales: Schmidt, Timo Torsten, Jagannathan, Nisha, Ljubljanac, Michal, Xavier, Ann, Nierhaus, Till
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7596232/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33122651
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75019-3
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author Schmidt, Timo Torsten
Jagannathan, Nisha
Ljubljanac, Michal
Xavier, Ann
Nierhaus, Till
author_facet Schmidt, Timo Torsten
Jagannathan, Nisha
Ljubljanac, Michal
Xavier, Ann
Nierhaus, Till
author_sort Schmidt, Timo Torsten
collection PubMed
description Different pharmacologic agents have been used to investigate the neuronal underpinnings of alterations in consciousness states, such as psychedelic substances. Special attention has been drawn to the role of thalamic filtering of cortical input. Here, we investigate the neuronal mechanisms underlying an altered state of consciousness (ASC) induced by a non-pharmacological procedure. During fMRI scanning, N = 19 human participants were exposed to multimodal Ganzfeld stimulation, a technique of perceptual deprivation where participants are exposed to intense, unstructured, homogenous visual and auditory stimulation. Compared to pre- and post-resting-state scans, the Ganzfeld data displayed a progressive decoupling of the thalamus from the cortex. Furthermore, the Ganzfeld-induced ASC was characterized by increased eigenvector centrality in core regions of the default mode network (DMN). Together, these findings can be interpreted as an imbalance of sensory bottom-up signaling and internally-generated top-down signaling. This imbalance is antithetical to psychedelic-induced ASCs, where increased thalamo-cortical coupling and reduced DMN activity were observed.
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spelling pubmed-75962322020-10-30 The multimodal Ganzfeld-induced altered state of consciousness induces decreased thalamo-cortical coupling Schmidt, Timo Torsten Jagannathan, Nisha Ljubljanac, Michal Xavier, Ann Nierhaus, Till Sci Rep Article Different pharmacologic agents have been used to investigate the neuronal underpinnings of alterations in consciousness states, such as psychedelic substances. Special attention has been drawn to the role of thalamic filtering of cortical input. Here, we investigate the neuronal mechanisms underlying an altered state of consciousness (ASC) induced by a non-pharmacological procedure. During fMRI scanning, N = 19 human participants were exposed to multimodal Ganzfeld stimulation, a technique of perceptual deprivation where participants are exposed to intense, unstructured, homogenous visual and auditory stimulation. Compared to pre- and post-resting-state scans, the Ganzfeld data displayed a progressive decoupling of the thalamus from the cortex. Furthermore, the Ganzfeld-induced ASC was characterized by increased eigenvector centrality in core regions of the default mode network (DMN). Together, these findings can be interpreted as an imbalance of sensory bottom-up signaling and internally-generated top-down signaling. This imbalance is antithetical to psychedelic-induced ASCs, where increased thalamo-cortical coupling and reduced DMN activity were observed. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-10-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7596232/ /pubmed/33122651 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75019-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Schmidt, Timo Torsten
Jagannathan, Nisha
Ljubljanac, Michal
Xavier, Ann
Nierhaus, Till
The multimodal Ganzfeld-induced altered state of consciousness induces decreased thalamo-cortical coupling
title The multimodal Ganzfeld-induced altered state of consciousness induces decreased thalamo-cortical coupling
title_full The multimodal Ganzfeld-induced altered state of consciousness induces decreased thalamo-cortical coupling
title_fullStr The multimodal Ganzfeld-induced altered state of consciousness induces decreased thalamo-cortical coupling
title_full_unstemmed The multimodal Ganzfeld-induced altered state of consciousness induces decreased thalamo-cortical coupling
title_short The multimodal Ganzfeld-induced altered state of consciousness induces decreased thalamo-cortical coupling
title_sort multimodal ganzfeld-induced altered state of consciousness induces decreased thalamo-cortical coupling
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7596232/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33122651
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75019-3
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