Speaker Bio
Zeus Tipado is a Neuropsychopharmacology PhD candidate at Maastricht University focusing on researching the brain while under DMT inside virtual/extended reality. He’s using fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) to give humanity its first glimpse on brain energy distribution and perceptual alterations in the visual cortex during this unique psychedelic process.
Unlike the current trend of psychedelic research that investigates how psychedelics can be used to help maladaptive behaviors like depression and anxiety, Zeus is focusing on the perceptual experience of a psychedelic trip and analyzing human brain activity while in these altered states of subjective consciousness.
Zeus is incorporating extended reality technology from Subpac and HTC to modulate perceptual information received within a psychedelic trip and explore the corresponding brain activity through cerebral blood oxygenation levels.
ICPR 2024 Abstract
What the world is seeing on DMT: Quantifying and measuring visual experiences of DMT
Theoretical Background:
DMT is a compound that mainly exerts its dominance in the visual domain. Colloquially, DMT is known to produce a very specific visual experience. However there has never been an attempt to quantify and measure this visual experience.
Research Question:
Is there a way to quantify a visual DMT experience and if there is, will this lead to a new scale to measure the visual experience of all psychedelics?
Methods:
For this study, we invited hundreds of people that have used DMT to assess their experience using a new scale that incorporates a temporal dimension. Other demographic data, like religious affiliation, cultural background, and existing visual deficits were also presented. In order to analyze data, we used several methods including factor analysis, structural equation modeling, mediation analyses, and growth curve modeling.
Findings:
We are still analyzing data, ICPR will be this conference for the world to see these findings. So far we see that a person’s familiarity with Terence McKenna (ethnobotanist that popularized DMT) greatly influences the potential for a person to have ‘entity’ encounters. We also see the effects of DMT are reminiscent of a rare visual condition known as Charles Bonnet Syndrome. Also the beginning of a DMT experience appears to have similarities with certain effects of lateral inhibition in the temporal lobe.
Conclusion:
The effects of DMT enabled us to construct a scale to measure visual effects of psychedelics. The effects of DMT appear to be connected with many confounding factors.