Andy Stringer

Rational Design of a Potent Non-Psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT Analogue Antidepressant... The effects of the classic psychedelics depend primarily upon their activity at the serotonin 5HT2A receptor. When a classic psychedelic binds to this receptor subtype, it increases the excitability of the neuron, making it more likely the neuron will fire and increasing the flow of information between neuronal networks... I’ve discussed in an earlier post how this gives rise to the characteristic changes in the structure and dynamics of the experienced world (and the self). nitter.gq/alieninsect/status/149… If you want to get into this much more deeply, then my second book Reality Switch Technologies is what you’re looking for: buildingalienworlds.com/book… However, all known classic psychedelic molecules also have varying activity at several of the other 16 or so known serotonin receptor subtypes: The 5HT1A receptor is particularly interesting, since its effects on neural activity are in direct opposition to those of the 5HT2A receptor. That is, the 5HT1A receptor decreases neuron excitability and opposes the excitatory effects of the 5HT2A receptor. So, together, these two receptor subtypes form a kind of neural activity “tuning dial”, with the overall excitability of a neuron depending (at least partly) on the balance of 5HT1A and 5HT2A receptor activation. We can visualise the basal balance of the 1A-2A dial when stimulated by endogenous serotonin (5HT) alone... Many classic psychedelics have varying activity at the 5HT1A receptor as well as the 5HT2A receptor, which can shift the dial in either direction depending on their relative activity at each receptor subtype and can modulate their effects on neural activity and, as a result, their subjective effects... (cont.)