Comment · Thu, April 18, 2013
Why does psychedelic-induced glutamate release not cause excitotoxicity?
Original post in this thread
AtomikPi · 14 points
It's my understanding that serotonergic psychedelics cause glutamate release. More broadly, there was a very cool fMRI study showing that psychedelics disable certain "filtering" regions of the brain - very much in line with Huxley's argument in The Doors of Perception.
Now obviously it's well-established that psychedelics don't cause degeneration of cognitive abilities. I'm thinking of a study from the early 70s showing no loss of cognitive abilities in individuals who'd used LSD an average of 50 or so times.
So why, from a neurological perspective does the glutamate release not cause excitotoxicity? Is the magnitude not large enough? The brain repairs itself?
Please note I've googled this and not come up with any conclusive result. There is a thread saying "it doesn't" / "not large enough of an effect" but no actual explanation or substantiation of that claim.
What they were answering
bassguitarking · 1 points
Certainly, I meant more just for research to understand the mechanism. If 5HT2a is the main contributor to neuroprotective effects I would assume a strong full agonist would be best right?
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
I would imagine so. It would definitely be an interesting test to prove the mechanism.