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Acute biphasic effects of ayahuasca.
Open accessAbstract
Ritual use of ayahuasca, an amazonian Amerindian medicine turned sacrament in syncretic religions in Brazil, is rapidly growing around the world. Because of this internationalization, a comprehensive understanding of the pharmacological mechanisms of action of the brew and the neural correlates of the modified states of consciousness it induces is important. Employing a combination of electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings and quantification of ayahuasca's compounds and their metabolites in the systemic circulation we found ayahuasca to induce a biphasic effect in the brain. This effect was composed of reduced power in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) after 50 minutes from ingestion of the brew and increased slow- and fast-gamma power (30-50 and 50-100 Hz, respectively) between 75 and 125 minutes. Alpha power reductions were mostly located at left parieto-occipital cortex, slow-gamma power increase was observed at left centro-parieto-occipital, left fronto-temporal and right frontal cortices while fast-gamma increases were significant at left centro-parieto-occipital, left fronto-temporal, right frontal and right parieto-occipital cortices. These effects were significantly associated with circulating levels of ayahuasca's chemical compounds, mostly N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), harmine, harmaline and tetrahydroharmine and some of their metabolites. An interpretation based on a cognitive and emotional framework relevant to the ritual use of ayahuasca, as well as it's potential therapeutic effects is offered.
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“After 50 min from ingestion of the brew there was observed a reduced alpha band activation over the left parieto-occipital cortex, followed by increased slow- and fast-gamma power (30–50 and 50–100 Hz, respectively) between 75 and 125 min.”
From The therapeutic potentials of Ayahuasca: possible effects against various diseases of civilization (2016) · cites this paper as Schenberg et al., 2015
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“These effects correlated significantly with the circulating levels of ayahuasca’s main ingredients, such as DMT, harmine, tetrahydroharmine, and some of their metabolites.”
From The therapeutic potentials of Ayahuasca: possible effects against various diseases of civilization (2016) · cites this paper as Schenberg et al., 2015
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Metadata
- Authors
- Schenberg, E. E., Alexandre, J. F. M., Filev, R., Cravo, A. M., Sato, J. R., Muthukumaraswamy, S. D., Yonamine, M., Waguespack, M., Lomnicka, I., Barker, S. A., & da Silveira, D. X.
- Affiliations
- Universidade Federal de São Paulo (BR)
- Universidade Federal do ABC (BR)
- University of Auckland (NZ)
- Louisiana State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Schenberg, Eduardo Ekman
- ORCID
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2015-09-30
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- e0137202
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4589238
- OpenAlex
- W1914275515
- Cited by
- 111
- References
- 95
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 10.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- ResearchSpace (University of Auckland) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (12/07699-7, 2014/, 2015/, 2011/, 15/13536-1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychedelics and Drug Studies
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmacology › Alkaloids: synthesis and pharmacology
- Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Organic Chemistry › Synthesis and bioactivity of alkaloids
- Keywords
- ayahuasca, N,N-dimethyltryptamine, harmine, harmaline, tetrahydroharmine, gamma power, syncretic religion
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain, Electroencephalography, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Plant Extracts, Psychometrics, Banisteriopsis, Young Adult, Brain Waves
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