Validation of the imperial psychedelic predictor scale.

Background: Access to psychedelic drugs is liberalizing, yet responses are highly unpredictable. It is therefore imperative that we improve our ability to predict the nature of the acute psychedelic experience to improve safety and optimize potential therapeutic outcomes. This study sought to validate the 'Imperial Psychedelic Predictor Scale' (IPPS), a short, widely applicable, prospective measure intended to be predictive of salient dimensions of the psychedelic experience.

Cortical Correlates of Psychedelic-Induced Shaking Behavior Revealed by Voltage Imaging.

(1) From mouse to man, shaking behavior (head twitches and/or wet dog shakes) is a reliable readout of psychedelic drug action. Shaking behavior like psychedelia is thought to be mediated by serotonin 2A receptors on cortical pyramidal cells. The involvement of pyramidal cells in psychedelic-induced shaking behavior remains hypothetical, though, as experimental in vivo evidence is limited.

Body mass index (BMI) does not predict responses to psilocybin.

Background: Psilocybin is a serotonin type 2A (5-HT) receptor agonist and naturally occurring psychedelic. 5-HT receptor density is known to be associated with body mass index (BMI), however, the impact of this on psilocybin therapy has not been explored. While body weight-adjusted dosing is widely used, this imposes a practical and financial strain on the scalability of psychedelic therapy.

Validation of the Psychological Insight Scale: A new scale to assess psychological insight following a psychedelic experience.

Introduction: As their name suggests, 'psychedelic' (mind-revealing) compounds are thought to catalyse processes of psychological insight; however, few satisfactory scales exist to sample this. This study sought to develop a new scale to measure psychological insight a psychedelic experience: the Psychological Insight Scale (PIS).

Methods: The PIS is a six- to seven-item questionnaire that enquires about psychological insight a psychedelic experience (PIS-6) and accompanied behavioural changes (PIS item 7).

The impact of combined age-related vision loss and dementia on the participation of older adults: A scoping review.

Introduction: There are a growing number of older adults with combined age-related vision loss (ARVL) and dementia. Existing literature shows the pervasive impact that both diagnoses have separately on the participation of older adults, however, little is known about the societal participation of older adults with both conditions. As such, the aim of this scoping review was to explore the combined impact of ARVL and dementia on the participation of older adults, with a specific focus on highlighting strategies that help mitigate the impact of ARVL and dementia on participation.

The serotonin 2A receptor agonist 25CN-NBOH increases murine heart rate and neck-arterial blood flow in a temperature-dependent manner.

Background: Serotonin 2A receptors, the molecular target of psychedelics, are expressed by neuronal and vascular cells, both of which might contribute to brain haemodynamic characteristics for the psychedelic state.

Aim: Aiming for a systemic understanding of psychedelic vasoactivity, here we investigated the effect of N-(2-hydroxybenzyl)-2,5-dimethoxy-4-cyanophenylethylamine - a new-generation agonist with superior serotonin 2A receptor selectivity - on brain-supplying neck-arterial blood flow.

Methods: We recorded core body temperature and employed non-invasive, collar-sensor based pulse oximetry in anesthetised mice to extract parameters of local blood perfusion, oxygen saturation, heart and respiration rate.

Individual components of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodelling complex have distinct roles in memory neurons of the mushroom body.

Technology has led to rapid progress in the identification of genes involved in neurodevelopmental disorders such as intellectual disability (ID), but our functional understanding of the causative genes is lagging. Here, we show that the SWI/SNF chromatin remodelling complex is one of the most over-represented cellular components disrupted in ID. We investigated the role of individual subunits of this large protein complex using targeted RNA interference in post-mitotic memory-forming neurons of the mushroom body (MB).

The histone methyltransferase G9a regulates tolerance to oxidative stress-induced energy consumption.

Stress responses are crucial processes that require activation of genetic programs that protect from the stressor. Stress responses are also energy consuming and can thus be deleterious to the organism. The mechanisms coordinating energy consumption during stress response in multicellular organisms are not well understood.

More Realistic Forecasting of Future Life Events After Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Depression.

Evidence suggests that classical psychedelics can promote enduring changes in personality, attitudes and optimism, as well as improvements in mental health outcomes. To investigate the effects of a composite intervention, involving psilocybin, on pessimism biases in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Patients with TRD ( = 15) and matched, untreated non-depressed controls ( = 15) performed the Prediction Of Future Life Events (POFLE) task.

Tolerance and Tachyphylaxis to Head Twitches Induced by the 5-HT2A Agonist 25CN-NBOH in Mice.

The serotonin (5-HT) 2A receptor is the primary molecular target of serotonergic hallucinogens, which trigger large-scale perturbations of the cortex. Our understanding of how 5-HT activation may cause the effects of hallucinogens has been hampered by the receptor unselectivity of most of the drugs of this class. Here we used 25CN-NBOH (N-(2-hydroxybenzyl)-2,5-dimethoxy-4-cyanophenylethylamine), a newly developed selective 5-HT agonist, and tested it with regard to the head-twitch-response (HTR) model of 5-HT activity and effects on locomotion.

Increased nature relatedness and decreased authoritarian political views after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.

Rationale: Previous research suggests that classical psychedelic compounds can induce lasting changes in personality traits, attitudes and beliefs in both healthy subjects and patient populations.

Aim: Here we sought to investigate the effects of psilocybin on nature relatedness and libertarian-authoritarian political perspective in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD).

Methods: This open-label pilot study with a mixed-model design studied the effects of psilocybin on measures of nature relatedness and libertarian-authoritarian political perspective in patients with moderate to severe TRD ( n=7) versus age-matched non-treated healthy control subjects ( n=7).

Optimal RNA isolation method and primer design to detect gene knockdown by qPCR when validating Drosophila transgenic RNAi lines.

Objective: RNA interference is employed extensively in Drosophila research to study gene function within a specific cell-type or tissue. Thousands of transgenic Drosophila lines have been generated to express double stranded RNA for gene knockdown; however, no standardized method exists for quantifying their knockdown efficiency. Since antibodies are not available for many proteins, quantitative real-time PCR is often used.

Lack of support for bexarotene as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

Bexarotene has been reported to reduce brain amyloid-β (Aβ) levels and to improve cognitive function in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Four groups failed to fully replicate the primary results but the original authors claimed overall support for the general conclusions. Because of its potential clinical importance, the current work studied the effects of bexarotene using two animal species and highly relevant paradigms.