How psychedelic drugs affect a rat's brain

Lund University researchers used multi-electrode recordings to measure how psychedelic drugs change brain-wide activity in awake rats. They simultaneously recorded electrical signals from 128 brain regions and found an unexpected, synchronized oscillation pattern across multiple areas after dosing with LSD and ketamine. Despite LSD and ketamine acting on different brain receptors, both produced similar large-scale wave states, suggesting collective neuron dynamics rather than single-neuron effects may track the psychedelic state. The researchers also discuss the potential of this measurable oscillation pattern as a research model for psychoses and as a tool for probing neural mechanisms related to consciousness.