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Pivotal mental states

This paper introduces a new construct, the ‘pivotal mental state’, which is defined as a hyper-plastic state aiding rapid and deep learning that can mediate psychological transformation. We believe this new construct bears relevance to a broad range of psychological and psychiatric phenomena. We arg...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Brouwer, Ari, Carhart-Harris, Robin Lester
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8054165/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33174492
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0269881120959637
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author Brouwer, Ari
Carhart-Harris, Robin Lester
author_facet Brouwer, Ari
Carhart-Harris, Robin Lester
author_sort Brouwer, Ari
collection PubMed
description This paper introduces a new construct, the ‘pivotal mental state’, which is defined as a hyper-plastic state aiding rapid and deep learning that can mediate psychological transformation. We believe this new construct bears relevance to a broad range of psychological and psychiatric phenomena. We argue that pivotal mental states serve an important evolutionary function, that is, to aid psychological transformation when actual or perceived environmental pressures demand this. We cite evidence that chronic stress and neurotic traits are primers for a pivotal mental state, whereas acute stress can be a trigger. Inspired by research with serotonin 2A receptor agonist psychedelics, we highlight how activity at this particular receptor can robustly and reliably induce pivotal mental states, but we argue that the capacity for pivotal mental states is an inherent property of the human brain itself. Moreover, we hypothesize that serotonergic psychedelics hijack a system that has evolved to mediate rapid and deep learning when its need is sensed. We cite a breadth of evidences linking stress via a variety of inducers, with an upregulated serotonin 2A receptor system (e.g. upregulated availability of and/or binding to the receptor) and acute stress with 5-HT release, which we argue can activate this primed system to induce a pivotal mental state. The pivotal mental state model is multi-level, linking a specific molecular gateway (increased serotonin 2A receptor signaling) with the inception of a hyper-plastic brain and mind state, enhanced rate of associative learning and the potential mediation of a psychological transformation.
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spelling pubmed-80541652021-05-04 Pivotal mental states Brouwer, Ari Carhart-Harris, Robin Lester J Psychopharmacol Review This paper introduces a new construct, the ‘pivotal mental state’, which is defined as a hyper-plastic state aiding rapid and deep learning that can mediate psychological transformation. We believe this new construct bears relevance to a broad range of psychological and psychiatric phenomena. We argue that pivotal mental states serve an important evolutionary function, that is, to aid psychological transformation when actual or perceived environmental pressures demand this. We cite evidence that chronic stress and neurotic traits are primers for a pivotal mental state, whereas acute stress can be a trigger. Inspired by research with serotonin 2A receptor agonist psychedelics, we highlight how activity at this particular receptor can robustly and reliably induce pivotal mental states, but we argue that the capacity for pivotal mental states is an inherent property of the human brain itself. Moreover, we hypothesize that serotonergic psychedelics hijack a system that has evolved to mediate rapid and deep learning when its need is sensed. We cite a breadth of evidences linking stress via a variety of inducers, with an upregulated serotonin 2A receptor system (e.g. upregulated availability of and/or binding to the receptor) and acute stress with 5-HT release, which we argue can activate this primed system to induce a pivotal mental state. The pivotal mental state model is multi-level, linking a specific molecular gateway (increased serotonin 2A receptor signaling) with the inception of a hyper-plastic brain and mind state, enhanced rate of associative learning and the potential mediation of a psychological transformation. SAGE Publications 2020-11-11 2021-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8054165/ /pubmed/33174492 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0269881120959637 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Review
Brouwer, Ari
Carhart-Harris, Robin Lester
Pivotal mental states
title Pivotal mental states
title_full Pivotal mental states
title_fullStr Pivotal mental states
title_full_unstemmed Pivotal mental states
title_short Pivotal mental states
title_sort pivotal mental states
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8054165/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33174492
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0269881120959637
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