University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA.
J Psychopharmacol. 2018 Jan;32(1):30-36. doi: 10.1177/0269881117736919. Epub 2017 Nov 2.
The pineal gland has a romantic history, from pharaonic Egypt, where it was equated with the eye of Horus, through various religious traditions, where it was considered the seat of the soul, the third eye, etc. Recent incarnations of these notions have suggested that N,N-dimethyltryptamine is secreted by the pineal gland at birth, during dreaming, and at near death to produce out of body experiences. Scientific evidence, however, is not consistent with these ideas. The adult pineal gland weighs less than 0.2 g, and its principal function is to produce about 30 µg per day of melatonin, a hormone that regulates circadian rhythm through very high affinity interactions with melatonin receptors. It is clear that very minute concentrations of N,N-dimethyltryptamine have been detected in the brain, but they are not sufficient to produce psychoactive effects. Alternative explanations are presented to explain how stress and near death can produce altered states of consciousness without invoking the intermediacy of N,N-dimethyltryptamine.
松果腺有着浪漫的历史，从法老埃及时代，它被等同于荷鲁斯之眼，到各种宗教传统，它被认为是灵魂、第三只眼等的所在地。这些观念的最新版本表明，N,N-二甲基色胺在出生、做梦和濒死时由松果腺分泌，以产生出体体验。然而，科学证据与这些观点并不一致。成人的松果体重量小于 0.2 克，其主要功能是每天产生约 30 微克的褪黑素，这种激素通过与褪黑素受体的高亲和力相互作用来调节昼夜节律。显然，在大脑中已经检测到非常微量的 N,N-二甲基色胺，但它们不足以产生精神活性作用。本文提出了替代解释，以说明在不涉及 N,N-二甲基色胺的情况下，压力和濒死状态如何能产生改变的意识状态。
