ISSN 0036-8075; 1095-9203;
67 papers in the library · 17,854 citations · publishing 1954-2026
Science December 3, 1965 Yuji Takeo, Harold E. Himwich 25 citations
By making cuts across different levels of the rabbit brain, the authors show that adrenaline causes electroencephalographic arousal at the midbrain, whereas mescaline and 3,4-dimethoxyphenylethylamine trigger arousal lower in the brainstem, at the medullary level.
Science March 31, 1978 Jan G. Bruhn, J.‐e. Lindgren, Bo Holmstedt et al. 23 citations
Alkaloid extracts from a prehistoric specimen of the peyote cactus (Lophophora), found in a burial cave in west central Coahuila, Mexico, contain mescaline, anhalonine, lophophorine, pellotine, and anhalonidine. Radiocarbon dating places the specimen between A.D. 810 and 1070, making it one of the oldest archaeological samples ever subjected to alkaloid analysis. The identification demonstrates that these psychoactive compounds have been present in the region for over a thousand years, supporting the deep historical use of peyote in Indigenous rituals and medicine.
Science November 10, 1972 Roy W. Baker, Cyrus Chothia, Peter Pauling et al. 23 citations
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) adopts a strained, sterically hindered, and fixed conformation in its crystalline iodobenzoate form, as determined by x-ray diffraction. This rigid molecular geometry may influence the compound's hallucinogenic activity.
Science August 7, 1970 J. Serratrice, R Dupuis, Marie Christine Aubry 23 citations
Lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate, given as a single daily dose of 5 to 500 micrograms per kilogram of body weight to pregnant rats, mice, and hamsters either at the start of gestation or during organogenesis, did not cause abortion, birth defects, or growth suppression. Examination of 1003 rat fetuses, 521 mouse fetuses, and 189 hamster fetuses showed no evidence of such effects.
Science April 27, 2023 Amy L. Mcguire, Holly Fernandez Lynch, Lewis A. Grossman et al. 20 citations
Policy should facilitate the production of evidence regarding the safety and effectiveness of interventions.
Science June 9, 1972 J.m. Neal, Patricia Sato, William N. Howald et al. 16 citations
Alkaloid extracts from the Mexican peyote cactus Pelecyphora aselliformis Ehrenberg contain hordenine, anhalidine, pellotine, 3-demethyltrichocereine, mescaline, 3,4-dimethoxy-β-phenethylamine, and the N-monomethyl derivatives of mescaline and 3,4-dimethoxy-β-phenethylamine. This is the first report of mescaline and several other alkaloids occurring in a North American cactus outside the genus Lophophora.
Science March 15, 1968 Philip H. Abelson 15 citations
No Summary
Science June 1, 1962 D. W. Woolley, N.k. Campbell 13 citations
Certain compounds that mimic psychosis, which are structurally similar to serotonin, sometimes produce effects like the hormone and sometimes oppose it, depending on the test used.
Science January 13, 1967 L. P. Gilmour, R. D. O’brien 7 citations
Psilocybin, a hallucinogenic compound, produced a blue color when mixed with a specific subfraction of rat-brain mitochondria that likely contains nerve-ending particles. The color formation intensified with higher pH, did not need oxygen, and involved an insoluble component. Chemically related neuroactive substances like bufotenine and serotonin did not cause this effect, and only tyramine or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid blocked the reaction.
Science September 19, 2024 Stacey B. Armstrong, Alan K. Davis 6 citations
Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) combines hallucinogenic drugs like psilocybin and MDMA with psychotherapy, showing potential for treating mental health conditions that affect one in eight people worldwide. Clinical trials in the US and Europe suggest PAT may offer shorter treatment times and stronger effects than existing therapies. However, the field faces significant controversy due to unanswered questions about safety and effectiveness, highlighted by the FDA's recent decision against approving MDMA therapy for PTSD and the retraction of several MDMA trial papers due to unethical therapist conduct and data integrity issues. The research community must address these obstacles to transition from exploratory trials to established, evidence-based treatments.
Science September 22, 1967 Thomas N. Chase, George R. Breese, Irwin J. Kopin 1 citation
Slices of rat brain that had taken up radioactive serotonin, either in a living animal or in a laboratory dish, were washed and then electrically stimulated. This caused a substantial release of the added serotonin, and to a smaller degree its breakdown products. The amount released depended on which brain region was tested, and the release was blocked by lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
Science May 7, 2026 Rachel Nuwer
A small study focusing on Black and low-income participants produced results described as remarkable.
Science May 28, 2021 L. Melloni, L. Mudrik, Michael A. Pitts et al.
Consciousness remains a hard problem: why does neural activity produce subjective experience, like the taste of chocolate or the feeling of a caress? Understanding this has medical and ethical implications, from assessing consciousness after brain injury to deciding whether nonhuman animals, fetuses, organoids, or advanced machines are conscious. A comprehensive theory is needed to determine which systems experience anything and to define ethical boundaries. An adversarial collaboration championing open science aims to test whether major current theories hold up.
Science April 12, 2019 R. N. Moda-Sava, Mitchell H. Murdock, P. Parekh et al.
Ketamine rescues depression-like behavior in mice by reversing stress-induced loss of dendritic spines and restoring coordinated neural activity in the prefrontal cortex. Spine formation in this brain region is necessary for sustaining—but not for initially inducing—ketamine's antidepressant effects on motivated escape behavior. Optogenetically deleting newly formed spines eliminated the long-term behavioral benefits, while deleting random spines did not. The findings suggest that interventions aimed at preserving restored synapses could help maintain remission from depression.
Science October 27, 2017 S. Dehaene, H. Lau, S. Kouider
The word 'consciousness' conflates two distinct types of brain computations: C1, which selects information for global broadcasting and flexible use, and C2, which self-monitors computations to produce a subjective sense of certainty or error. Current machines, despite recent successes, mostly implement computations akin to unconscious processing (C0) in humans. The authors review psychological and neural science of unconscious and conscious computations and outline how these may inspire novel machine architectures.
Science July 24, 1981 Jeffrey Schaeffer, Therese Andrysiak, J. Thomas Ungerleider
In ten people who were born, raised, and educated in the United States and had histories of heavy or prolonged cannabis use, cognitive function was not impaired. Urine samples from all ten contained cannabinoid metabolites above 50 nanograms per milliliter, and the cannabis they used had a tetrahydrocannabinol content exceeding 8.0 percent.
Science May 2, 1969 Michael F. Halasz, Jaroslav Formanek, Amedeo S. Marrazzi
The interaction between hallucinogens and tranquilizers at cerebral synapses and in animal behavior follows a competitive inhibitory pattern. As the tranquilizer dose increases, its effect shifts from protecting against hallucinogen effects to dominating and increasing tranquilizer toxicity. Behavioral data from cats and monkeys, along with rats, show that a sufficiently high tranquilizer dose can aggravate rather than protect, consistent with a competitive mechanism.