Neuropharmacological modulation of the aberrant bodily self through psychedelics

Abstract

As a continual source of sensory input and fundamental component of self-referential processing, the body holds an integral modulatory role in cognition. In a healthy state, predictive coding of multisensory integration promotes the construction of a coherent self. However, several psychiatric disorders comprise aberrant perceptions of the bodily self that are purported to involve discrepancies in the integration and updating of multisensory systems. Changes in functional connectivity of somatomotor and high-level association networks in these disorders could be successfully remediated through 5-HT2A receptor agonism via psychedelics. Reported alterations of bodily self-awareness during psychedelic experiences allude to a potentially central role of the bodily self. In this article, we bridge the domains of (aberrant) bodily self-awareness and psychedelics by discussing the predictive coding mechanisms underlying the bodily self and psychedelics. Furthermore, we propose that psychedelically-induced desynchronization of predictive coding might involve modulation of somatomotor, sensorimotor, and high-level association networks that could remediate aberrant perceptions of the bodily self.

Prefrontal contributions to the stability and variability of thought and conscious experience

“…The REBUS model proposes a unifying account of how serotonergic psychedelic compounds affect conscious experience [32]. Serotonergic psychedelics are a specific class of psychoactive compounds including but not limited to lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), that principally act upon cortical serotonin 2A receptors [54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64] to achieve their profound psychological effects [32,65,66] and therapeutic potential [67][68][69][70][71][72]. Moving forward, we use the term psychedelics to refer to these serotonergic psychedelics.…”

“…Psychedelics disrupt the normative sense of self: one of their most consistent and profound effects is a subjectively experienced "ego-dissolution" [24,25,28,31,72,[329][330][331][332]-an attenuation of mental and bodily self-experience, including a reduced availability of autobiographical structures and a loss of bodily boundaries or felt ownership [66,69]. This results in an increased variability of thought and conscious experience [95], because information from lower levels of the neurocognitive hierarchy is "liberated" from the constraining influence of top-down beliefs [32].…”

P300‐mediated modulations in self–other processing under psychedelic psilocybin are related to connectedness and changed meaning: A window into the self–other overlap

“…Additionally, a single process early in the neural processing stream (e.g., N100) may further modulate later stages through co‐dependent temporal properties of the signal (Burgess, 2012; Taylor et al, 2019). The disembodiment aspect may also further modulate perception through a lessened corporeal reference and desynchronization of predictive coding (Giummarra, Gibson, Georgiou‐Karistianis, & Bradshaw, 2008; Ho, Preller, & Lenggenhager, 2020).…”

Virtual Reality in Clinical Psychology

“…In this view, multisensory integration conflicts ( Ehrsson, 2012 ) represent a failure in this functional adaptation process, leading to several pathological conditions. As underlined by Ho et al. (2020) : “ Impaired feedback affecting any level of the multisensory hierarchy could disturb the coherent integration of lower-level signals with the bodily self and disrupt the individual's optimal interaction with the external and social world ” (p. 528).…”

“…(2020) : “ Impaired feedback affecting any level of the multisensory hierarchy could disturb the coherent integration of lower-level signals with the bodily self and disrupt the individual's optimal interaction with the external and social world ” (p. 528). Specifically, altered functioning of the body matrix and/or multisensory integration processes might produce disorders of the bodily self that underlie different neurological and psychiatric conditions ( Riva, 2008 ; Riva et al., 2017 ; Brugger and Lenggenhager, 2014 ; Tsakiris and Critchley, 2016 ; Ho et al., 2020 ).…”