Rachel Jonas, a neuroscience PhD student at UCLA, studies the dynamic effects of LSD on the human brain.
"[Serotonin 2A] is expressed all over the brain, particularly in regions associated with cognitive functions and social interactions. Stimulation of this receptor has been directly linked to cognitive flexibility, enhanced imagination and creative thinking. Disorders associated with variants of the 5-HT2AR include schizophrenia, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – in other words, a panoply of psychiatric illness. It turns out that LSD functions by binding to and stimulating 5-HT2AR in the cerebral cortex, which is thought to regulate an enzyme called phospholipase C, and eventually leads to psychoactive effects. In fact, blockage of this receptor has been linked to a remediation of the hallucinatory effects of LSD in rats." [Aeon Magazine]
Q: Ever wonder if there is a trove of overly-happy humans as large as the mass of depressive ones?
A: I googled it. Turns out an excess of Serotonin causes diarrhoea, vomiting, shivering and confusion. So, no. There is not a group of happy humans that exist out there taunting the depressed. Or, if there is, they are happy and confused, frolicking in their own shit. Either way, this feels like a small victory for the trove of depressed.
Gilbert & George, Speaking Youth, 1981. Exhibited at MONA, "Gilbert & George The Art Exhibition" 28 November 2015 - 28 March 2016.