Comment · Fri, October 11, 2013 · Ceretropic
what causes feelings to be felt in the head while taking nootropics?
Original post in this thread
thegrumpyhypnotist · 5 points
I'm not referring to changes in mood or focus etc, but rather somatic feelings of pressure or tingling in the head while taking nootropics.
I am curious about this because, from what I understand, there are no pain/"feely" receptors in the brain, but I see reports and also from direct experience have (inconsistently) felt pressure or tingling in specific locations in my head, dependent on the type of compound.
Let's set aside the "placebo" bugaboo for now, which can always be used to explain away any anecdotal report. These sensations are often not pleasant, quite alarming in fact, as it sometimes makes me wonder if I am setting myself up for a "cerebral event", eg. w/ noopept early dosing experiences would cause intense pressure behind/around my left eyeball (where I had cataract surgery a few years ago).
Is this simply a similar type of mechanisim that accounts for headaches? If so, I guess it does demonstrate that nootropics are doing something with my physiology... whether good or bad is underdetermined. But what could explain the "tingly" feeling that is sometimes felt inside my head?
What they were answering
thegrumpyhypnotist · 1 points
Thank you for the fascinating link! I was unaware of that phenomenon... the somatic feelings are somewhat similar to what's described in the article, but without the sensationalist overlay of making it sound like having an orgasm in the brain.
It's interesting that the article mentions binaural beats... I have used binaural beats for years and experience strange effects from them too. One way to describe it is the sensation you might get if you (or someone else) held a fingertip very close to your forehead, at least for me, it causes the beginnings of a euphoric sensation of "elevation", almost vertigo, sometimes my eyes start to roll back in their sockets, etc.
That is still different than the tingling feeling that I feel in different parts of my brain on nootropics, however, but I wonder if they are related. It makes sense that the pressure-type effects are simply related to blood pressure changes as silverhydra is describing.
PS. I find it fascinating that you spelled the word "autonomouse", in relation to this topic, as the article suggests possible linkage to grooming behaviors found in animals, and earlier today I was talking to someone about the grooming behaviors of mice and cats, and how this could possibly influence/be influenced by that familiar old friend of nootropics lovers BDNF. Weird!
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
I know the tingling feeling you are describing. I get it all the time as well. Pramiracetam seems to do it every time I take it. Interestingly enough, the first time I ever felt this sensation was on MDMA. It's like a shooting tingle that starts at the prefrontal cortex, then runs down the mid-line of my brain to the back of my head. That same feeling happens when I listen to a song that I really like. It actually happened today, and I did not even take any racetams.
As for the mechanism, I have not been able to figure it out yet. I assume it is glutamate mediated in some way.