A 30-year-old woman with depression and red-green color blindness experienced temporary improvements in color perception after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Before ECT, she made 30 mistakes on the Ishihara color blindness test; one hour after her 24th ECT session, she made only 15 mistakes and reported colors appearing brighter and more vivid, though her vision returned to baseline the next day. This case suggests ECT can transiently enhance color discrimination in a color-blind individual, an effect not previously reported. The authors propose possible mechanisms involving altered processing in the thalamus or visual cortex, and note parallels with the heightened color perception reported after psychedelic experiences.
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) increases global cerebral blood flow and internal carotid artery flow without affecting artery diameter, effects opposite to those of psilocybin. Functional connectivity analyses show decreases in global connectivity (GCOR), which is negatively correlated with the increase in cerebral blood flow. An anticlockwise hysteresis loop between plasma drug levels and subjective effects suggests atypical pharmacodynamic mechanisms. These findings, derived from simultaneous PET-MRI in seven healthy volunteers, establish the dose-occupancy relation of LSD at cerebral serotonin 2A receptors and highlight neurophysiological differences from related psychedelics, providing insights for clinical development.