Psychedelics go beneath the cell surface to unleash their potentially therapeutic effects. These drugs are showing promise in clinical trials as treatments for mental health disorders. Now, scientists might know why. The substances can get inside nerve cells in the cortex — the brain region important for consciousness — and tell the neurons to grow, researchers report. It was already known that substances like psilocin, which comes from magic mushrooms, and LSD repair neurons by promoting the growth of nerve cell branches that receive information, called dendrites. But how they trigger cell growth was a mystery. The new research shows that access to a protein called the 5-HT2A receptor (highlighted with colors in this microscopic image) inside the cells may be the key to achieve therapeutic effects. (📸: David Olson/UC Davis) #science #neuron #nervecell #brain #neuroscience #psychedelic #lsd #magicmushroom #cortex #cell #microscopic world

Scientists can see chronic pain in the brain with new clarity. Over months, electrodes implanted in the brains of four people picked up specific signs of their persistent pain. Chronic pain is incredibly common, but also incredibly complex and thus difficult to treat. Stimulating the brian with electricity is one common treatment approach. In this study, implanted electrodes (red dots in the images above) in the orbitofrontal cortex (shown in yellow) and anterior cingulate cortex (shown in blue) monitored brain signals of people with chronic pain. Using sophisticated machine learning approaches, researchers then linked each person’s pain ratings to their brain activity patterns, ultimately landing on a signature of each person’s chronic pain. In many ways, the patterns were unique to each person, but there was overlap: Brain activity in the OFC, an area at the front of the brain just behind the eyes, tracked with people’s chronic pain levels. Brain activity in the OFC could represent a solid biomarker of chronic pain, a signal that could both help doctors track treatment responses and serve as new targets for treatment, says neuroscientist Chelsea Kaplan. (📸: P. Shirvalkar) #science #neuroscience #chronicpain #medicine #electrode #brain #brainimplant