Introduction

Social interaction impairments are important components to the progression of psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression, dementia, etc. For each case there are different origins for the social impairments though they can be understood within the abilities to have joint attention initiated from others or the individual. Treatment for such disorders is constantly researched to determine effective promotions of social interactions. In a paper recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience, Preller, K et al. investigate LSD micro-dosing and its effect on social interactions through a joint attention stimulator using eye-trackers and functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) to identify brain activity. Results found that LSD reduces the activity in brain areas associated with ‘self-processing’ implicating the reasoning behind the subjective and eye-opening experience individuals that take this drug experience during and after its  administration. 

Background 

Joint attention is the ability to effectively communicate ideas, emotions, perspectives and evidently to form personal bonds. Once these social functions are damaged, an individual can struggle to communicate and have perspectives outside of ‘self’. Skills developed as infants, are important for non-direct and direct communication. To watch the gaze of the mother and understand the object receiving attention and to change the joint attention by effectively switching the gaze and encouraging the mother to look for the object the baby observes. In people with depression, the joint focus is challenged as the individual has a strong focus on the idea of ‘self’ and can’t perceive the situation through the attention of someone else therefore self-non-joint is experienced. In the  case of someone with schizophrenia, processing context is difficult and cannot form this joint attention because they are unable to recognize the attention of someone else thus other-non-joint is experienced. This paper then aims at understanding how the agonist  activity with the 5-HT2A receptor can promote the awareness and mind opening effect on the individual and how the antagonist ketanserin can block this subjective effect that  inhibits attention.  

Methods 

24 participants included in the analysis screened for a healthy medical history, physical examination, ‘normal’ vision, blood analysis and exclusion of present or previous psychiatric disorders listed in family history. The administration of drugs was randomized to take 1; placebo + placebo, 2; placebo + LSD and 3; ketanserin + LSD at two weeks apart. After 310 minutes of drug administration, the task was conducted, 10 minutes before and 720 minutes after a self-report questionnaire was given to assess the experience. The social interaction task was formed with the objective to challenge joint attention, a basic skill in social interaction. The task was an interactive game with another individual where they would lead or follow the gaze of the character in the game to an object on the screen. The direction of the gaze was tracked via an eye-tracker and displayed on the screen for both individuals to notice and lead their attention to, an indirect form of social interaction. Five experimental conditions tested; selfjoint, selfnonjoint, otherjoint, and othernonjoint (figure 1) and the base line to understand the effect of the agonist 5-HT2A receptor and the antagonist ketanserin on the interaction.  An MRI screen was performed on participants with a target on ‘social brain areas’ such as the left precuneus, left superior medial gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex, and the temporal gyrus.  

Results  

Results demonstrate that the LSD administration decreased activity in the areas of the brain associated with social cognition but most importantly areas with self-processing.  An activity decrease in the posterior cingulate cortex (pcc) and the temporal gyrus decreases self-initiated responses compared to ‘outside’ initiated social responses. This is crucial because the PCC is associated with the active site for self-related thoughts and reflections. Essentially memory retrieval which modulates the ideas of identity in a social environment, involved in the disturbances of ‘self’ recognition experiences in schizophrenia patients. The decrease of these areas identifies LSD as a trigger that dismisses ‘ego’ or ‘self’, and as an effect, interwinds the sense of surroundings with the senses of the individual thereby becoming one. The differentiation between the environment and the individual is decreased thus implying that joint attention efficiency is minimized under LSD influence.  

Results also found activity decrease in the medial prefrontal cortex which is also associated with self-knowledge and joint attention and perhaps the monitorization of an individual’s emotions during social interactions. Activity increase in the medial prefrontal cortex is associated with patients with depression as the ‘self-focus’ is increased where social interaction becomes more difficult and discouraged by the individual. Through observations and comparisons of the different joint attention capabilities of the participants taking LSD, researchers concluded that the receptor 5-HT2A is a key component to the execution and processes of joint attention. Interestingly, this receptor system is important in the functioning of psychiatric disorders such as depression and the modulation to the reactions of social interaction. For instance, recovered depressed patients were able to effectively respond to joint attention but did not formulate values of  self or trust from these interactions. Thus, an improvement in social settings is observed  however the value of identity is disconnected. Important to notice that no other receptor system was investigated in this experiment therefore the significance of their role is not  included in this conclusion of data analysis.  

Conclusion 

The results of this article are important because they imply a possible treatment for people with psychiatric disorders. Because social interactions are damaged partly due to the lack of joint attention skills that encourage bonding and perspective intake, perhaps a drug which has a ‘mind-opening’ experience can encourage the demolition of self-focus. Treatment for psychiatric disorders now come with a variety of limitations including effects on sleep and general well-being and according to the reports of this experiment, after three months, participants did not report different side effects so the  question arises if micro-dosing of hallucinogenic drugs will affect well-being long term. How would the receptor system that is accounted for the identification of self be affected or is it possible to become addicted to the drug or the experience. Reading into research with LSD, music was an external variable used to promote emotional  recollection and memory attributions to a self-experience. How can the re-wiring of music incorporation with a subjective effect demolish the self-center focus of those with depression or the out of context awareness of those with schizophrenia. Is it possible that the treatment be effective and not necessary for long term usage? 

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