Sensory processing: a link between autism and LSD?

Post Reply New Topic

I couldn't help but notice similarities between the experience of autism, and the experience of psychedelics, in regards to sensory processing. Bottom up processing leads either to a wonderful sensory experience of the world, or to being utterly overwhelmed.

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/1271-how-acid-lsd-make-people-trip.html

"...our perception of the world is governed by a combination of 'bottom-up' processing, starting … with incoming signals, combined with 'top-down' processing, in which selective filters are applied by your brain to cut down the overwhelming amount of information to a more manageable and relevant subset that you can then make decisions about.

"In other words, people tend to see what they've been trained to see, and hear what they've been trained to hear."

...drugs like LSD and psilocybin, the active ingredient in "magic" mushrooms, tune down the thalamus' activity. Essentially, the thalamus on a psychedelic drug lets unprocessed information through to consciousness, like a bad email spam filter. "Colors become brighter , people see things they never noticed before and make associations that they never made before," Sewell said.

.....But according to Sewell, these unique feelings and experiences come at a price: "disorganization, and an increased likelihood of being overwhelmed." At least until the drugs wear off, and then you're left just trying to make sense of it all.

I cannot argue against the conceptual similarity, however, the action of LSD on the brain through serotonergic pathways is dissimilar to the neurological condition of autism (that being widespread rather than acting on a singular route). Hmm.

Strangely, that makes me wonder what someone with ASD would be like on those drugs

I know. It's amazing. I have no idea what it's like for NTs tho.... hmm...

Yes psychedelics do have a way of more or less letting more through....and depending on the setting and mindset your in before the trip can make the difference between an enjoyable experience and a bad trip. It is overwhelming but it can be good overwhelming or bad overwhelming.

As for in general I have always felt I am able to take in more information than most people...but then of course I end up coming off as slow. I mean I always have more or less attributed it to having more input to deal with and or having lots of anxiety and such going on internally which can distract me from general tasks.

I wonder if people with autism get a stronger effect....due to possibly already taking in more sensory input. Or if that is more likely to give people with autism a lesser effect because they are kind of used to taking in more.

Haha I imagine (I've tried x twice, with opposing results, so I'm iffy on trying anything like that. Plus it seems my particular chemistry is resistant to drug alterations, because I tend to even out really quickly)

Yes, it's not exactly the same in regards to precise mechanisms, and there are clearly some differences, but from a broader view point, that of how the mind operates, I think both experiences could illuminate the others by compare and contrast.

Consciousness can be achieved by different routes; for instance, some birds, such as ravens and their kin, demonstrate the capacity for language, tool use, and self awareness - despite having evolved those brain functions completely independently of mammals for millions of years. My point is that very different neurological pathways can be combined to form experiences that at least at some levels are analogous, even if not identical.

Autistics have had the bottom up, less filtered experience their whole lives, so they've adapted to it and normalized that way of seeing the world to use it to function, while for an NT suddenly exposed to that sort of experience, it's such a shock to have that filtered perception peeled back, that they are either elated at what they see, or horrified, depending on how they go into it.

Your brain changes based on experiences, so if two people experience the same experience or neurological stimulus, past experiences can make both person's experiences completely different.

I've heard (second-hand) that some profoundly autistic people (non-verbal etc) have been administered LSD and at least for a brief period became functioning and verbal - anyone heard of this?

I stopped taking acid in 1972 when LSD-25 became LSD-27, due to the worldwide ban of Ergotamine and they had to start extracting the lysergic acid from morning glory or baby wood-rose seeds. This created distortions in the experience--for example, 'trails', or' physical 'spine shivers' and spoiled me cause I was used to ergot based LSD

I read that baby woodrose contains what's called LSA, which is a precursor to LSD - not sure precisely what that means other than that it has similarities to LSD, but is also more likely to give bad experiences.

Yup. Ergotamine was a derivative or ergot, the European black rye mold that, for example, caused Hieronymus Bosch's other-world paintings in the 16th century. It was found that there was no other use for ergotamine other than LSD, so it was banned worldwide and needed complex 'distilling' so no one could even make it, not even the illustrious LSD alchemist, Augustus Stanley Owsley. The difference in new and old-world acid are cosmos' away. P.S. The Beatle "song" (if you could call it that), '#9' , is about LSD-9, the 9th version that Sandoz made. It was the first batch that Sandoz Labs released to people like Leary and Alpert (we see what real LSD did to those guys) for use with psychological studies. It was re-distributed to 'heads' like the Fab Four, later to become walruses from people like "Dr. Robert".

This is really interesting, could you provide a link to this information? I couldn't really find much, but I also don't have a lot of time right now.

These are things I read about when it happened, probably from "Rolling Stone" (back when it was 'heady'), "IT", or "Oz" or other news alternative news media. I see ergotamine is used for migraine control, but is not distributed. These days, the lysegic acid is derived from 'ergotamide' from Morning Glory or Baby wood-rose seeds, so it's a new formula. I'm sure I read about "Revolution #9" in Oz. Sorry not to be of more help.

Never heard the association between Bosch and Ergot, but considering how weird his stuff is (especially for the time period), the idea makes a lot of sense.

I don't think just anybody should go out and take psychedelics, but I think it's too bad that they've been so completely condemned that they've not been open even for controlled scientific study. That's starting to change, but very slowly.

A lot of people back then ate ergot mold on their rye bread unthinkingly. Undoubtedly Bosch did, and tho he may not have painted under the influence, his paintings reflected the experience that may underwent in the days before food preservatives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergotism

ERGOT POISONING TIME! EVERYBODY DANCE! ... themselves to death...