Since Albert Hoffman discovered LSD ( lysergic acid diethylamide ) in 1938 and hippie refinement made it a popular social drug in the 1960s , its psychedelic effect on the brain have been a source of scientific investigation . Anecdotally it ’s know to stimulate ocular and auditive hallucination as well as reports of an somebody ’s signified of ego dissolving and merging with a magnanimous consciousness .
Recentresearchdone at Imperial College Londondiscovered through brain imagingthat there is indeed a great softwood of activity in the visual cerebral mantle of the brain when on LSD , and that it seems to interrupt connections between other psyche net , leading to that short-lived state of unity reported by users .
Yet these overlapping sensory experiences also share a lot in common with the brain conditionsynesthesia , in which an individual ’s senses overlap or set off each other in a way that is atypical . The disorder is rare . Estimates range , but most concord on approximately 1 per centum of the population .
A group of researchers at the University of London ( UoL ) recently mark out to study whether the effects of LSD dependent as true synesthesia . Their results , published inNeuropsychologia , paint a picture that what LSD - drug user are have is not genuine synesthesia . The researchers say their findings open up the door to a better understanding of how we work on sensorial perceptions .
“ Synesthesia is basically understood as … a kind of condition in which a excitant , known as an inducer , will consistently evoke a petty experience that is untypical — not something in the main feel in the general population , ” Devin Terhune , cognitive neuroscientist at UoL , tellsmental_floss .
While every synesthete ’s experience is unequalled , Terhune says there are some commonalty . For instance , many report seeing the letter B as blue , zero as whitened , and one as bootleg . The most common instances of synesthesia are sound / people of colour pairings ( where the strait of a doorbell may conjure a light-green aura , for object lesson ) and color / graphemepairings ( where a finicky letter or part of a word may come out in a specific color and even shape , like a blob or spiny edges ) .
To be considered congenital synaesthesia , however , the reply must be confirm by consistency and specificity — that is , the same inducer must produce the same reaction every time .
For the placebo - manipulate study , 10 physically and psychologically hefty participants were injected with saline answer for their first school term , then they completed psychological trial to quantify synesthesia - like experiences : a grapheme - color association trial and a healthy - semblance tie trial . After five to seven days , they were injected with 40 - 80 mcg of LSD , and the tests were repeated .
While the participants said they had unwritten synaesthesia - like experiences while on LSD , they did n’t describe specific color experiences with graphemes and sounds , and sounds and color were no more consistent on LSD than with the placebos . These results suggest that whatever is happening while under the influence of LSD , it is n’t “ true ” synaesthesia .
Given such anecdotal tie of coloring material hallucinations in the existing literature about LSD , Terhune says he was surprised to find that “ the color experience burden was not even statistically significant . ”
Terhune says the minor sample size of it of 10 participants may have something to do with the weakness of the results . Another factor may have been the research laboratory prepare itself . Most people who take lysergic acid diethylamide are n’t experiencing the drug ’s effects in a lab environment . “ Factors like novelty and exposure to stimulant may be more vital , ” he allege . “ Congenital synesthesia is really known as a stimulating - specific phenomenon — that something in your environment actuate your experience , reliably and automatically . ”
He hint succeeding study could be designed that would follow people taking LSD “ out in the field ” and ask them at various time , using an app , to report what they ’ve been experience . This could yield a wider kitchen stove of data point .
Another question for succeeding researchers is whether there is a “ key distinction between spontaneous form of synesthesia and the inducer - specific experiences that innate synesthetes ’ experience , ” Terhune allege .
There may be genetic underpinnings to the upset , which seems to be inherited in kin . There are several working theories on its origins . One is theimmune speculation , which weigh that the cistron responsible for normal cortical development are also involved in the developing of synesthesia . Thehyperconnectivity theorysuggests that synesthetes , whose brains have been shown to have extra - developedmyelinalong sensorial pathways , may have a collaboration of senses resulting in synesthesia . Other possibility consider the influence of the puerility environment or potentially higher levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine in the brains of synesthetes .
While the final result of this subject area may not appear to have immediate implications — and no researcher is out to “ bring around ” synaesthesia — Terhune says that one motivation for his work is to understand the neurochemicals require in the phenomenon . Plus , there is inquiry to suggest that synesthetes with grapheme - semblance synesthesia haveenhanced realization memorycompared to the average person , which could be of welfare to cognitive research .
“ I do n’t think synesthesia is pass to reveal the really deep insights into different psychological phenomenon , ” Terhune concludes , “ but it can provide us with some useful insights and potentially interesting models for thing such as memory board , imagery , and other cognitive occasion . ”
