New Study Reveals Real-Time Brain Changes After Ketamine Use

LOS ANGELES– A groundbreaking study, published in the Nature Journal Scientific Reports and sponsored by psychedelics firm Cybin Inc. (CYBN), demonstrates Kernel’s Flow technology system’s capability to capture and analyze brain changes following the administration of ketamine, a psychoactive substance.

The research, aimed at measuring the acute effects of subanesthetic ketamine on brain blood flow, employed Kernel’s proprietary time-domain functional near-infrared spectroscopy (TD-fNIRS). The study represents a remarkable achievement as it is both the first fNIRS human neuroimaging study with ketamine and the largest fNIRS study measuring the acute effect of a psychedelic.

During the single-blind, placebo-controlled, yet non-randomized trial, 15 healthy participants received either 0.75 mg/kg of ketamine or a placebo in a clinical setting. The recorded results unveiled intriguing insights:

1. Ketamine induced an altered state of consciousness and elicited systemic physiological changes, such as an increase in pulse rate.
2. The brain’s low-frequency fluctuations decreased overall, along with a reduction in global brain connectivity in the prefrontal region.
3. Preliminary evidence indicates that a combination of neural and physiological metrics might predict subjective mystical experiences and reductions in depressive symptoms.

The study also showcased Flow’s seamless integration into everyday clinical settings and its user-friendly nature for real-world neuroimaging.

Kernel CEO Ryan Field expressed his enthusiasm, deeming the study a significant milestone in the field of neuroimaging. He highlighted Flow’s remarkable ease and capabilities in exploring the physiological effects of psychedelics in natural settings. Field is optimistic that this research will pave the way for large-scale clinical studies using Flow technology, enabling the quantification of psychedelics’ impact on the brain.

Cybin CEO Doug Drysdale echoed the sentiment, emphasizing the study’s groundbreaking nature in supporting Kernel’s ability to measure functional brain activity in real-time, using a wearable and convenient device. The findings also suggest that a combination of metrics may be predictive of subjective mystical experiences during psychedelic treatment.