Psilocybin Disrupts Sensory and Higher Order Cognitive Processing but Not Pre-attentive Cognitive Processing-study on P300 and Mismatch Negativity in Healthy Volunteers

Overview

Journal Psychopharmacology (Berl)

Specialty Pharmacology

Date 2018 Jan 6

PMID 29302713

Citations 17

Authors

Anna Bravermanova

Michaela Viktorinova

Filip Tyls

Tomas Novak

Renata Androvicova

Jakub Korcak

Jiri Horacek

Marie Balikova

Inga Griskova-Bulanova

Dominika Danielova

Premysl Vlcek

Pavel Mohr

Martin Brunovsky

Vlastimil Koudelka

Tomas Palenicek

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Rationale: Disruption of auditory event-related evoked potentials (ERPs) P300 and mismatch negativity (MMN), electrophysiological markers of attentive and pre-attentive cognitive processing, is repeatedly described in psychosis and schizophrenia. Similar findings were observed in a glutamatergic model of psychosis, but the role of serotonergic 5-HT receptors in information processing is less clear.

Objectives: We studied ERPs in a serotonergic model of psychosis, induced by psilocybin, a psychedelic with 5-HT agonistic properties, in healthy volunteers.

Methods: Twenty subjects (10M/10F) were given 0.26 mg/kg of psilocybin orally in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, cross-over design. ERPs (P300, MMN) were registered during the peak of intoxication. Correlations between measured electrophysiological variables and psilocin serum levels and neuropsychological effects were also analyzed.

Results: Psilocybin induced robust psychedelic effects and psychotic-like symptoms, decreased P300 amplitude (p = 0.009) but did not affect the MMN. Psilocybin's disruptive effect on P300 correlated with the intensity of the psychedelic state, which was dependent on the psilocin serum levels. We also observed a decrease in N100 amplitude (p = 0.039) in the P300 paradigm and a negative correlation between P300 and MMN amplitude (p = 0.014).

Conclusions: Even though pre-attentive cognition (MMN) was not affected, processing at the early perceptual level (N100) and in higher-order cognition (P300) was significantly disrupted by psilocybin. Our results have implications for the role of 5-HT receptors in altered information processing in psychosis and schizophrenia.

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