Characterization of the behavioural and neurological effects of psychedelic drugs in rats
Psychedelics are hallucinogenic drugs that have been used in healing traditions for millennia and they are known to induce an altered state of mind, and affect emotional and cognitive processes. However, the precise mechanism by which these psychedelic drugs function neuropharmacologically, and how they affect perception and neural circuits is not well known. The aims of this study are: 1. To characterize the behavioural phenotypes for various psychedelic drugs, as well as their potential pharmacotherapeutic effect; and 2. To understand their effect on network communication through measuring neuronal oscillatory activity within and between several brain regions in the rat default mode network.