Psychedelics | LLMs: Is Mental Illness also a Disease of Myelinated Axons, Saltatory Conduction?

There is a new paper in Nature, 5-HT2AR and NMDAR psychedelics induce similar hyper-synchronous states in the rat cognitive-limbic cortex-basal ganglia system, where the authors stated that:

"The profound changes in perception and cognition induced by psychedelic drugs are thought to act on several levels, including increased glutamatergic activity, altered functional connectivity and an aberrant increase in high-frequency oscillations. To bridge these different levels of observation, we have here performed large-scale multi-structure recordings in freely behaving rats treated with 5-HT2AR psychedelics (LSD, DOI) and NMDAR psychedelics (ketamine, PCP). While interneurons and principal cells showed disparate firing rate modulations for the two classes of psychedelics, the local field potentials revealed a shared pattern of synchronized high-frequency oscillations in the ventral striatum and several cortical areas. Remarkably, the phase differences between structures were close to zero, corresponding to <1 ms delays. Likely, this hypersynchrony has major effects on the integration of information across neuronal systems and we propose that it is a key contributor to changes in perception and cognition during psychedelic drug use. Hence, we propose that such hypersynchrony is a mechanism by which an altered state of consciousness can be induced, either during a psychedelic experience or as part of a psychotic episode."

They noticed that in spite of different actions on different receptors, psychedelics generally cause brain waves to move in hypersynchrony. Brain waves are measures of the activities of electrical impulses of neurons. Electrical impulses, in a process called saltatory conduction, are insulated in myelinated axons and travel faster than in unmyelinated axons, in the process called continuous conduction.

Electrical impulses jump from node to node, over myelin sheaths in saltatory conduction. There are different brain centers that are more specialized for certain functions than others. These circuits have their localized neurons, defining those functions.

In those sets of neurons, it is hypothesized that their jumps across myelin sheaths are not concurrent, but that they occur in sequences, where the differences between some in a set define interactions with chemical impulses. This means that given the set of neurons for motivation or expectation, say in the ventral striatum, some of the saltatory conduction occurs with differences that go on to induce sets of chemical impulses. These differences, though slight, determine an experience and its contrasts from others.

The human mind is postulated to be the collection of all the electrical and chemical impulses of neurons, with their features and interactions. Sets of electrical impulses have their features as well as sets of chemical impulses.

One of those features is stairs or drifts, where chemical impulses are rationed or filled, in appropriate measures to define and differentiate an emotion from a feeling, or a taste from a smell, or the degree of touch, and so forth.

These stairs or drifts can be said to have a sense of self as well, where subjective experiences are obtained. In parts of these stairs, access is possible for control or intentionality, or free will.

It is theorized that for sets of chemical impulses, the drifts are mostly provided at the synaptic clefts, with the vesicles and receptors. For sets of electrical impulses, their stairs or drifts are myelin sheaths, which they skip over.

Another feature of electrical impulses is early-splits or go-before, where some in the same beam of incoming signals split, to interact with chemical impulses like had happened before, such that if the input matches, nothing happens, but if not, the following ones go to the right direction, correcting the error. This explains predictive coding, processing, and prediction error.

Perceptions are by splits since they are often the first to be interpreted. Short-term memory or working memory also uses this. Talking, typing, signing, and writing also use this to prepare what next to say.

The saltatory conduction is proposed to play a role in the splits. In serious mental illnesses, with delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, and so forth, there could be a problem with splits, starting from a higher concurrency with sets of saltatory conduction.

Usually, external situations are always checked with memory, emotion, and feeling, to ensure that the consequences of actions are known. This is provided by splits, where some in the set of electrical impulses 'acquire' those from sets of chemical impulses, guiding behavior and action.

In a mental illness, the split may not acquire consequence, or the concurrency of saltatory conduction that should induce a drift in the synaptic cleft for the sense of self does not happen. This could be responsible for how some living with a mental illness have little sense of self in some of their acts or have detached experiences, from what is happening to them.

Simply, the higher-than-usual collection or beam among sets of electrical impulses could be responsible for some of the symptoms. For example, an individual living with schizophrenia could be in the cold, shivering without seeking shelter or better clothing. The individual may be having a detached experience, as well as not having fear of what may go wrong. Fear is available as a drift of chemical impulses that should be obtained by some of the split electrical impulses, but may not because some of them are in beams. The same applies to shame in some actions.

For psychedelics, they may induce numerous splits, or larger-than-usual differences in the intervals of saltatory conduction in a set of neurons, so that as the splits scatter everywhere, there is an altered state of consciousness, across emotion, feeling, and memory experiences.

The hypersynchrony in the paper does not negate that splits or spaced saltatory conduction between sets of electrical impulses are possible. The hypersynchony could mean that there is more synchrony between those electrical impulses conducting at the same time. For example, say there are a number of saltatory conduction at A, B, C, D, and so forth times, it is possible that some electrical impulses jump together at A, then others at B, and some at C, D, and so forth. This could mean that there are more splits, with many deciding to go at the same time, in different directions. In mental illnesses, they are further packed, limiting regular acquisitions and subjective experience or the self.

There are other features as well of sets of chemical and electrical impulses that include sequences, bounce points, principal spot, prioritization and pre-prioritization, thin and thick shapes, and others. It is possible to theoretically model mental illnesses by the proposed features of sets of electrical and chemical impulses as well as what psychedelics do, to ensure that a display is possible even as LLMs take hold and some of the measures can be explored, providing an aspect of help against many of the conditions.