Selen Atasoy - Singing the Mind
Channel: Amsterdam Psychedelic Research Association
Date: 2018-11-17

Singing the mind: Connectome-harmonic signatures of psychedelics, sleep and meditation presented by Selen Atasoy from the University of Oxford, UK 

Harmonic patterns are ubiquitous in nature, emerging in various physical and biological phenomena ranging from acoustics, optics, and electromagnetic interactions to morphogenesis. Recently, brain activity in awake, resting state is also shown to follow stable harmonic wave patterns emerging on the anatomical connectivity of the human brain. These harmonic waves, called "connectome harmonics" reveal fully synchronized patterns of cortical activity accompanying different frequency temporal oscillations. More importantly, they yield a novel frequency-specific language to describe brain activity. Just like decomposing a musical piece into a combination of musical notes, connectome harmonics enable the decomposition of functional neuroimaging data (e.g. fMRI, MEG, EEG) into the set of connectome-specific harmonic waves. In this talk I will demonstrate that the decomposition of brain activity measured in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in different states of consciousness into the connectome harmonics reveals their characteristic neural signatures. Remarkably, enhanced states of consciousness such as psychedelic-induced altered states correspond to an expanded repertoire of these harmonic brain states, whereas this repertoire collapses into a narrow range of low frequency connectome harmonics in loss of consciousness. Notably, connectome-harmonic signatures of the psychedelic state and the meditative state reached by experienced meditators during mindfulness meditation show notable similarities indicating the potential common neural correlates underlying these two altered states of consciousness.

Filmed at ParadigmLost a symposium organized by the Amsterdam Psychedelic Research Association (APRA) in 2018.
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