Psychedelics profoundly alter subjective experience and brain dynamics. Brain oscillations express signatures of near-critical dynamics, relevant for healthy function. Alterations in the proximity to criticality have been suggested to underlie the experiential and neurological effects of psychedelics. Here, we investigate the effects of a psychedelic substance (DMT) on the criticality of brain oscillations, and in relation to subjective experience, in humans of either sex. We find that DMT shifts the dynamics of brain oscillations away from criticality in alpha and adjacent frequency bands. In this context, entropy is increased while complexity is reduced. We find that the criticality-shifts observed in alpha and theta bands correlate with the intensity ratings of self-dissolution, a hallmark of psychedelic experience. Finally, using a recently developed metric, the functional excitatory-inhibitory ratio, we find that the DMT-induced criticality-shift in brain oscillations is toward subcritical regimes. These findings have major implications for the neuronal understanding of the self and psychedelics, as well as for the neurological basis of altered states of consciousness.
Keywords: DMT; EEG; brain oscillations; criticality; self-dissolution.
Copyright © 2025 Irrmischer et al.
A biotech company called Revel Pharmaceuticals is looking into ways to reverse aging, and the company’s science team, along with researchers from the company Calico and the University of Colorado, may be a step closer to realizing the so-called fountain of youth. The team recently published their study in Nature Communications detailing how they engineered an enzyme capable of reversing a particular form of age-related damage and demonstrated its competence with test results.
One common sign of aging in the cells of living organisms is a type of protein damage called Nε-carboxymethyl-lysine (CML). CML is part of a group of harmful compounds aptly named “AGEs” (or advanced glycation and lipoxidation end products). Oddly enough, it is also part of the Maillard reaction, known for causing the browning in cooked food that creates rich, savory flavors, complex aromas and golden-brown crusts. In living organisms, CML builds up on long-lived proteins, like those in skin, blood vessels and the eye. This stiffens tissues and can fuel chronic inflammation through an immune-signaling receptor called “RAGE.”
“The engagement of the CML-RAGE axis triggers a signaling cascade that activates NF-κB and stimulates the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and profibrotic growth factors. In the context of the central nervous system, CML accumulation has been linked to oxidative stress and mitochondrial damage in microglia, further disrupting brain homeostasis during aging,” the authors of the new study explain.
Our bodies generate extremely weak magnetic fields as electric currents flow through the heart, brain and other tissues. These signals are used in magnetocardiography and magnetoencephalography to assess heart function and brain activity, respectively. These fields can be detected at room temperature using diamond sensors containing nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers, in which a carbon atom is replaced by a nitrogen atom adjacent to an empty lattice site.
However, conventional NV-center sensors typically require watt-level lasers to detect the extremely weak biomagnetic fields, which are usually below the picotesla level. These high-power lasers generate significant heat, limiting how close the sensor can be placed to biological tissue. Since biomagnetic fields rapidly weaken with distance, overcoming thermal and close-proximity challenges is essential for practical biomagnetic sensing.
A research team led by Professor Takayuki Iwasaki from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, School of Engineering, Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, has developed a diamond quantum magnetometer using a low-power laser of just 210 mW, a light-trapping diamond waveguide and a compact microwave antenna. The new sensor limits its temperature rise to only 13 K while allowing it to be placed just 2 mm (0.08 inches) from the sample, enabling close-proximity biomagnetic measurements without compromising thermal safety.
University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists have developed a promising new experimental approach to targeting glioblastoma, the most common and deadliest brain cancer. The approach could overcome many of the limitations of treatments using existing drugs.
UVA’s Roger Abounader, MD, Ph.D., and colleagues have identified “microRNAs” that can simultaneously suppress multiple malfunctioning genes responsible for glioblastoma’s formation and growth. The scientists use a combination of brain-penetrating nanoparticles, focused ultrasound waves and microbubbles to deliver the miRNAs through the brain’s natural protective barrier—a barrier that typically blocks treatments for tumors and neurodegenerative diseases. The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
“This new approach could help target numerous molecules that promote cancer growth, including those for which no drugs exist, at the same time to achieve better therapies,” said Abounader, a professor at UVA’s School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology, Comprehensive Cancer Center and Center for RNA Science and Medicine. “We are hoping to translate our findings into future clinical trials for patients with glioblastoma and other brain tumors.”
