Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Greg Miller the American news correspondent on Science with a focus on neuroscience and other areas of biological, behavioral, and social science has published an article on Wired titled ‘Open Your Mind to the New Psychedelic Science’ in which he states “Timothy Leary really screwed things up for science. By abandoning the scientific method for a mystical embrace of hallucinogenic drugs, the Harvard-professor-turned-LSD-evangelist became a symbol of ’60s-era drug-fueled degeneracy. Worse, the ensuing backlash pushed these drugs underground and caused an enormously promising field of research to go dormant for nearly half a century. …But the times they are a-changin’. In recent years, a small cadre of scientists has cautiously rekindled the scientific study of psychedelics. …they reported new findings on how these drugs scramble brain activity in ways that might help explain their mind-bending effects. They’re also slowly building a case that these drugs might help people with depression, anxiety and other disorders. Roughly a dozen small clinical trials are now underway worldwide. But the idea isn’t “take two tabs of acid and call me in the morning.” Instead, these trials are testing the idea that psychedelics taken in a therapist’s office as part of a series of psychotherapy sessions can make talk therapy more effective. …The classic psychedelics, including psilocybin and LSD, stimulate receptors for serotonin, a neurotransmitter that’s also targeted, albeit in different ways, by approved antidepressant and anti-anxiety drugs like Prozac and Zoloft. …People in the grips of depression, the thinking goes, are trapped in an endless cycle of critical self-examination, and a little neural desynchronization might help them reboot. …Psychedelic scientists still face obstacles at every step of the process, from getting research funding, to getting the compounds themselves, to publishing the findings…”

Inspired by Greg Miller, Wired ow.ly/l5yba Image source Facebook ow.ly/l5xiZ

A sort of one-man third culture (May 20th 2012)

Jonah Lehrer the 30 year old American author and journalist who writes on the topics of psychology, neuroscience, and the relationship between science and the humanities has been profiled by Paul Harris for The Guardian in an article titled ‘Jonah Lehrer: the prodigy who lights up the brain’. Harris states of Lehrer “He brings an artist’s skill to the latest research in neuroscience, making him a huge success at only 30. Now his latest book aims to demystify the workings of creativity… He strives to link art and neurology: how chemical reactions within three pounds of squidgy grey matter inside our skulls actually make us love, laugh and lead our lives. That sounds profound and much of Lehrer’s writing is full of wondrous examples of brain and art colliding and collaborating. He shows how writers and painters pre-empted the insights of neuroscience; how different parts of our brains battle with decisions; how creativity is not simply a God-given gift to a lucky few but can be understood, learned and nurtured. But his goal is not without its critics. Where some see Lehrer as a genius, others might see him repackaging plain old common sense in fine prose. It is something that is a risk of the field.”

Inspired by Paul Harris http://ow.ly/aS6Ul image source Twitter http://ow.ly/aS6Qd