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REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics

The REBUS model explains psychedelic effects as a relaxation of the brain's high-level priors, letting bottom-up signals write more freely — a complete, mainstream neuroscientific account in which vivid "other realities" are generated entirely inside the skull, with no external world required. It is deliberately included as the honest counterweight: if this record asks whether the perceived reality is real, the strongest naturalistic "no" belongs on the shelf beside the "maybe." DOI 10.1124/pr.118.017160.

Authors
Robin L. Carhart-Harris, Karl J. Friston
Journal
Pharmacological Reviews
Published
2019-07-01
DOI
10.1124/pr.118.017160
Content type
Paper
Authority
Academic
Stance score
-6

Abstract

The REBUS model explains psychedelic effects as a relaxation of the brain's high-level priors, letting bottom-up signals write more freely — a complete, mainstream neuroscientific account in which vivid "other realities" are generated entirely inside the skull, with no external world required. It is deliberately included as the honest counterweight: if this record asks whether the perceived reality is real, the strongest naturalistic "no" belongs on the shelf beside the "maybe." DOI 10.1124/pr.118.017160.

Topics

  • Academic Paper
  • Critique
  • Neurobiology
  • Predictive Processing
  • psilocybin
  • LSD
  • DMT

Citation

Robin L. Carhart-Harris, Karl J. Friston (2019) REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics. Pharmacological Reviews. doi:10.1124/pr.118.017160

View source

DOI: 10.1124/pr.118.017160

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