There has been plenty of recent research investigating the potential of harnessing the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs, and a new study suggests that taking lysergic acid diethylamide — more commonly known as LSD or acid — could help people overcome depression.
Past studies have shown that depressed moods are often linked with a tendency to dwell on the past and ruminate on one’s own history. In a way, this thinking is like a kind of “mental time travel,” and the new research indicates that LSD may inhibit the brain network that mediates this time travel of the mind.
Published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the study defines “mental time travel” as “the ability of humans to mentally project themselves backwards and forwards in time, to recollect aspects of past autobiographical episodes or imagine future experiences.”
Moreover, scholars have noted that the ability to access and replay previous life events significantly contributes to a person’s sense of self and identity, which academics refer to as the “ego.”
The key circuit that mediates an individual’s capacity for mental time travel is a particular brain network called the default-mode network (DMN). Research has shown that people with higher rates of connectivity in the DMN have the tendency to dwell on the past more, engage in ruminative thought, and suffer from depression.
Due to this association, a team of researchers led by Jana Speth at the University of Dundee decided to determine whether LSD can reduce the tendency for mental time travel by administering volunteers with either a real dose of LSD or a placebo.
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