Winkelman Michael J
School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States.
Front Neurosci. 2017 Sep 28;11:539. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00539. eCollection 2017.
Neuropharmacological effects of psychedelics have profound cognitive, emotional, and social effects that inspired the development of cultures and religions worldwide. Findings that psychedelics objectively and reliably produce mystical experiences press the question of the neuropharmacological mechanisms by which these highly significant experiences are produced by exogenous neurotransmitter analogs. Humans have a long evolutionary relationship with psychedelics, a consequence of psychedelics' selective effects for human cognitive abilities, exemplified in the information rich visionary experiences. Objective evidence that psychedelics produce classic mystical experiences, coupled with the finding that hallucinatory experiences can be induced by many non-drug mechanisms, illustrates the need for a common model of visionary effects. Several models implicate disturbances of normal regulatory processes in the brain as the underlying mechanisms responsible for the similarities of visionary experiences produced by psychedelic and other methods for altering consciousness. Similarities in psychedelic-induced visionary experiences and those produced by practices such as meditation and hypnosis and pathological conditions such as epilepsy indicate the need for a general model explaining visionary experiences. Common mechanisms underlying diverse alterations of consciousness involve the disruption of normal functions of the prefrontal cortex and default mode network (DMN). This interruption of ordinary control mechanisms allows for the release of thalamic and other lower brain discharges that stimulate a visual information representation system and release the effects of innate cognitive functions and operators. Converging forms of evidence support the hypothesis that the source of psychedelic experiences involves the emergence of these innate cognitive processes of lower brain systems, with visionary experiences resulting from the activation of innate processes based in the mirror neuron system (MNS).
迷幻药的神经药理学效应具有深刻的认知、情感和社会影响，激发了世界各地文化和宗教的发展。迷幻药能客观且可靠地产生神秘体验，这引发了一个问题：这些具有高度重要意义的体验是由外源性神经递质类似物通过何种神经药理学机制产生的。人类与迷幻药有着悠久的进化关系，这是迷幻药对人类认知能力产生选择性作用的结果，丰富的幻觉体验便是例证。迷幻药能产生经典神秘体验的客观证据，以及许多非药物机制可诱发幻觉体验的发现，都表明需要一个关于幻觉效应的通用模型。有几种模型认为，大脑中正常调节过程的紊乱是导致迷幻药及其他改变意识方法所产生的幻觉体验具有相似性的潜在机制。迷幻药诱发的幻觉体验与冥想、催眠等实践以及癫痫等病理状况所产生的幻觉体验具有相似性，这表明需要一个解释幻觉体验的通用模型。意识的多种改变背后的共同机制涉及前额叶皮质和默认模式网络（DMN）正常功能的破坏。这种对普通控制机制的干扰使得丘脑和大脑其他较低区域的放电得以释放，从而刺激视觉信息表征系统，并释放先天认知功能和操作的效应。越来越多的证据支持这样一种假设：迷幻体验的根源涉及大脑较低系统这些先天认知过程的出现，幻觉体验是基于镜像神经元系统（MNS）的先天过程被激活的结果。
