Visual acuity enhancement: Difference between revisions

It is thought that a fundamental feature of information-processing dysfunction in both hallucinogen-induced states and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders is the inability of these people to screen out, inhibit, filter, or gate irrelevant stimuli and to attend selectively to more important features of the environment.<ref>Bleuler, E. Dementia praecox oder die Gruppe der Schizophrenien, 1st ed. Vienna: Deutike; 1911. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.149.5.661</ref><ref>Karper, L. P.; Freeman, G. K.; Grillon, C.; Morgan, C. A.; Charney, D. S.; Krystal, J. H. Preliminary evidence of an association between sensorimotor gating and distractibility in psychosis. J. Neuropsychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 8:60–66; 1996. https://doi.org/10.1176/jnp.8.1.60</ref><ref>Karper, L. P.; Grillon, C.; Charney, D. S.; Krystal, J. H. The effect of ketamine on pre-pulse inhibition and attention. Neuropsychopharmacology 124; 1994. https://doi.org/10.1016/0920-9964(95)95554-M</ref><ref>McGhie, A.; Chapman, J. Disorders of attention and perception in early schizophrenia. Br. J. Med. Psychol. 34:103–116; 1961. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8341.1961.tb00936.x</ref><ref>Scharfetter, C. Ego-pychopathology: The concept and its empirical evaluation. Psychol. Med. 11:273–280; 1981. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700052090</ref><ref>Vollenweider, F. X. Advances and pathophysiological models of hallucinogen drug actions in humans: A preamble to schizophrenia research. Pharmacopsychiatry 31:92–103; 1998. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2007-979353</ref>  

The CSTC model of the brain posits that the thalamus plays a key role in controlling or gating external sensory information to the conscious faculties and is thereby fundamentally involved in the regulation of a person's awareness and attention.<ref>Goddard, A. W.; Charney, D. S. Toward an integrated neurobiology of panic disorder. J. Clin. Psychiatry 58(suppl. 2):4–11; 1997. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-03330-001</ref><ref>Steriade, M.; Descheˆnes, M. Cellular thalamic mechanisms. In: Bentivoglio, M.; Spreafico, R., eds. Intrathalamic and brainstem-thalamic networks involved in resting and alert state. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1988:37–62. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/10017402609/en/</ref><ref>Steriade, M.; McCormick, D. A.; Sejnowski, T. J. Thalamocortical oscillations in the sleeping and aroused brain. Science 262:697–685; 1993. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8235588</ref><ref>Vollenweider, F. X., & Geyer, M. A. (2001). A systems model of altered consciousness: integrating natural and drug-induced psychoses. Brain research bulletin, 56(5), 497-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0361-9230(01)00646-3</ref> The interruption of psychedelics to these neural pathways that inhibit the sensory gating systems<ref name="Vollenweider1998">Vollenweider F. (1998). Recent advances and concepts in the search for biological correlates of hallucinogen-induced altered states of consciousness. Heffter Rev. Psychedel. Res. 1, 21–32. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/10019112167/</ref><ref>Vollenweider F., Geyer M. (2001). A systems model of altered consciousness: integrating natural and drug psychoses. Brain Res. Bull. 56, 495–507.  

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0361-9230(01)00646-3</ref> may therefore result in an enhanced availability of sensory information which is normally filtered out by these systems. This process is likely involved in the various [[visual enhancements|visual]], [[tactile enhancement|tactile]], and [[auditory enhancement|auditory enhancements]] which commonly occur when under the influence of a psychedelic experience.