What’s the true nature of the relationship between brain, mind and consciousness? How does ayahuasca, the famous amazonian medicine and psychedelic sacrament used in distinct socio-cultural settings, modify brain activity influencing consciousness in such a profound, unique and fascinating manner?

These and other research questions can be studied by neuroscientific techniques such as the electroencephalogram (EEG), which continuously measures the brain’s electrical oscillations.

Conducted between 2011 and 2015 at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), this research was published at PLOS ONE in Spetember 2015 (Schenberg et al) and showed for the first time that ayahuasca effects biphasic effects in the brain.

In other words, ayahuasca elicits modifications of consciousness that vary qualitatively over time. The research also showed that these effects can not be solely explained based on the actions of N,N-dimethyltriptamine (DMT), further expanding current notions about ayahuasca’s pharmacological mechanism of action.

Next steps include researching connectivity measures in source space and exploring the fractal dimension of the brain signal before and during ayahuasca’s effects.