• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Scientists Gave LSD To Dogs With Autism-Like Behavior – It Altered Their Brain Activity

September 11, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

A single dose of the psychedelic drug LSD appears to alter the brain activity of dogs with autism-like traits during social interactions. Unlike other canines, these pooches were unable to synchronize their neural activity with humans when being petted, yet all that changed when they ingested the trippy substance.

Advertisement

Describing their findings in a new study, the researchers explain that social interactions between humans are driven by “interbrain activity coupling,” whereby the individuals involved develop matching patterns of neural activity in certain key brain regions. Wondering whether this mechanism might exist between species, the study authors used electroencephalography to record the brain activity of humans and dogs as they mingled.

Results showed that such synchronization does indeed occur between the two species during both mutual gazing and petting. Specifically, the researchers found that interbrain activity coupling was localized within the so-called frontoparietal network, which is involved in the attentional selection of sensory information.

Within this network, the frontal region typically processes visual cues while the parietal region takes care of somatosensory information. Accordingly, the data showed that synchronization was strongest in the frontal region when dogs and humans gazed at each other, while petting triggered stronger coupling in the parietal region.

The strength of this synchronization was also seen to increase across the five days of experiments, as dogs became increasingly familiar with their handlers. Further analysis of the information flow during brain activity coupling revealed that humans are very much the leaders and instigators of this synchronization, with dogs following the social cues of their two-legged companions. 

Summing up these observations, the study authors explain that “the strength, direction, and attention-associated brain regions of the interbrain activity coupling during human-dog interactions are similar to those during human-human interactions.”

Advertisement

However, when the experiments were repeated using dogs that had been bred as a model of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), no such synchronization was seen between the animals and their human co-participants. These dogs also displayed reduced attention during interactions with people.

Citing previous studies that have highlighted the ability of LSD to enhance social behavior in mice, the study authors decided to investigate whether the drug could alter the brain activity of these dogs. Sure enough, they found that “a single dose of LSD rescued impaired interbrain coupling and joint attention in… mutant dogs, suggesting that LSD may potentially ameliorate social deficits in [ASD].”

“There are two implications of the present study,” said study author Yong Q. Zhang in a statement. “One is that the disrupted inter-brain synchronization might be used as a biomarker for autism, and the other is LSD or its derivatives might ameliorate the social symptoms of autism.”

However, the researchers point out that the mechanism by which LSD brings about these effects “remains unclear”, and further work is required in order to determine whether or not the drug could be used clinically.

Advertisement

The study has been published in the journal Advanced Science.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Nielsen CEO defends company amid escalating criticism from TV industry
  2. This App Is The Secret To Happy Houseplants
  3. Adding Gold To Wine Could Be The Key To Making It Taste Better
  4. The Atlantic Gulf Stream Was Unexpectedly Strong During The Last Ice Age – New Study

Source Link: Scientists Gave LSD To Dogs With Autism-Like Behavior – It Altered Their Brain Activity

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • If Birds Are Dinosaurs, Why Are None As Big As T. Rexes?
  • Psychologists Demonstrate Illusion That Could Be Screwing Up Our Perception Of Time
  • Why Are So Many Enormous Roman Shoes Being Discovered At Hadrian’s Wall?
  • Scientists Think They’ve Pinpointed Structural Differences In Psychopaths’ Brains
  • We’ve Found Our Third-Ever Interstellar Visitor, Orcas Filmed Kissing (With Tongues) In The Wild, And Much More This Week
  • The “Eyes Of Clavius” Will Be Visible On The Moon Today, Thanks To Clair-Obscur Effect
  • Shockingly High Microplastic Levels Found On Remote Mediterranean Coral Reef Island
  • Interstellar Object, Cheesy Nightmares, And Smooching Orcas
  • World’s Largest Martian Meteorite Up For Auction Could Reach Whopping $2-4 Million
  • Kimalu The Beluga Whale Undergoes Pioneering Surgery And Becomes First Beluga To Survive General Aesthetic
  • The 1986 Soviet Space Mission That’s Never Been Repeated: Mir To Salyut And Back Again
  • Grisly Incident In Yellowstone National Park Shows Just How Dangerous This Vibrant Wilderness Can Be
  • Out Of All Greenhouse Gas Emitters On Earth, One US Organization Takes The Biscuit
  • Overly Ambitious Adder Attempts To Eat Hare 10 Times Its Mass In Gnarly Video
  • How Fast Does A Spacecraft Need To Go To Escape The Solar System?
  • President Trump’s Cuts To USAID Could Result In A “Staggering” 14 Million Avoidable Deaths By 2030
  • Dzo: Hybrids Beasts That Are Perfectly Crafted For Life On Earth’s Highest Mountains
  • “Rarest Event Ever” Had A Half-Life 1 Trillion Times Longer Than The Age Of The Universe – How Did We See It?
  • Meet The Bille, A Self-Righting Tetrahedron That Nobody Was Sure Could Exist
  • Neurogenesis Confirmed: Adult Brains Really Do Make New Hippocampal Neurons
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version