Institute for Cognitive Science Studies

Psilocybin-containing mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms, strongly affect mood, cognition, and behavior. Psilocybe azurescens is a species of psilocybin mushrooms that contains the main active compounds psilocybin and psilocin. Psilocybin mushrooms have been used since ancient times to improve the quality of life. However, their adverse effects have been less studied. This study aimed to investigate, for the first time, the effect of oral consumption of P. azurescens on social behavior, anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors in rats. The underlying mechanisms of these behaviors were also studied. Male Wistar rats received three doses of P. azurescens (10, 100, and 250 mg/kg) by gavage every other day for 14 days. Social interaction, anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors were assessed using the three-chamber, elevated plus maze, and forced swimmingtests, respectively. Protein levels of neurotrophic (BDNF and GDNF), neuroinflammatory (IL-6 and TNFα), and oxidative stress (ROS and SOD) factors were measured in the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex (PFC), and amygdala by ELISA technique. The results showed that P. azurescens significantly increased anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors and disrupted social interaction behavior in rats. These effects were accompanied by increased neuroinflammation and oxidative stress and decreased neurotrophic factors in the hippocampus, PFC, and amygdala. This study suggests that the high doses of P. azurescens can cause mood disorders by increasing inflammatory responses and oxidative stress and decreasing the expression of neurotrophic factors.

Introduction Dementia is a growing concern in aging populations, particularly among individuals with limited education, where traditional cognitive tests may yield inaccurate results. The Kimberley Indigenous Cognitive Assessment (KICA-cog) was developed to assess cognitive impairment in Indigenous Australians with low literacy. Methods This study aimed to validate the Persian version of KICA-cog among elderly Iranians with low or no formal education. A total of 160 participants over age 55 were categorized into three groups: healthy (n = 80), mild cognitive impairment (n = 40), and major cognitive impairment (n = 40), based on DSM-5 criteria and clinical diagnosis. The Persian version of KICA-cog was culturally adapted and administered alongside the MMSE. Results The internal consistency of the Persian KICA-cog was high (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.89). KICA-cog scores correlated strongly with MMSE scores (r = 0.96, p < 0.001). ROC curve analysis identified an optimal cutoff score of 28.5 for KICA-cog (sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 97%) and 17.5 for the MMSE (sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 92.5%). Conclusion The Persian version of KICA-cog is a reliable, valid, and culturally appropriate screening tool for detecting both mild and major cognitive impairment in illiterate and semi-literate elderly populations in Iran.

A central goal of the presurgical evaluation for refractory focal epilepsy is the accurate delineation of the epileptogenic zone (EZ)-the cortical region indispensable for generating epileptic seizures. Given that electroencephalography (EEG) provides superior temporal resolution while functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) offers enhanced spatial localization, integrating these modalities holds significant promise for improving epileptic focus identification. In this study, we first derived characteristic spike patterns by detecting and averaging interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) from extraoperative EEG recordings. These patterns were then correlated with intracranial EEG data to develop an automated system for precise temporal mapping of seizure activity. Finally, we convolved the resulting temporal regressor with the hemodynamic response function (HRF) within a general linear model (GLM) framework to achieve robust localization of epileptic foci. This study was performed on five medication-resistant epilepsy patients whose neuroimaging and electrophysiological data were acquired at the National Brain Mapping Lab (NBML). Our proposed methodology demonstrated strong concordance with clinical EEG findings across all five cases. Notably, for the three surgical candidates, the approach provided additional localizing information beyond conventional EEG data. Quantitative analysis revealed statistically significant enhancements in both localization accuracy (<tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathbf{p}&lt;0.05$</tex>) and spatial precision (mean ± SEM: <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$2.3 \pm 0.4 \text{mm}$</tex>) compared to current gold-standard techniques reported in recent literature.

Ketamine, a noncompetitive N-methyl- d -aspartate receptor antagonist, and crocin, the bioactive components of Crocus sativus L. , affect anxiety, depression, memory, and pain processes. It has not yet been clarified that crocin can potentiate the analgesic and antidepressant effects of ketamine, as well as attenuate the anxiogenic and amnesic impacts of ketamine in adolescent rodents. This study was designed to explain this issue in adolescent female Wistar rats. For this aim, elevated plus-maze, forced swim test, step-through, and tail-flick tests were utilized. The results indicated that the adolescent female Wistar rats' body weight increased across 10 days of drug treatment, but it did not differ between the groups. Pretreatment with ketamine [20 mg/kg, intraperitoneally (i.p.)] induced anxiogenic- and antidepressant-related behaviors, as well as amnesic and analgesic impacts in adolescent female Wistar rats. Furthermore, alone injection of crocin (30 mg/kg, i.p.) exerted an antidepressant-related behavior. When ketamine (20 mg/kg, i.p.) and crocin (30 mg/kg, i.p.) were coinjected, crocin could potentiate the analgesic and antidepressant effects of ketamine, as well as attenuate the anxiogenic and amnesic properties of ketamine in adolescent female Wistar rats. These results suggested that crocin causes a modulatory effect on ketamine's anxiogenic- and antidepressant-related behaviors, as well as amnesic and analgesic effects in adolescent female Wistar rats.

Attention impairment is a dimensional and heterogeneous trait, distributed continuously across the population. Understanding the pathophysiology of eye movement control offers valuable insight into attention dysfunctions and their underlying neural circuits. This systematic review aims to map different oculomotor paradigms and metrics to key attention systems across a range of psychiatric conditions, highlighting their potential for identifying biological markers of attention. We conducted a systematic search on PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases using keywords related to ‘eye-tracking,’ ‘(in)attention,’ and ‘mental disorders.’ Seventy-five studies were included, categorized into three core domains of attention: Selective Attention (spatial/feature), Sustained Attention, and Executive Control, based on the associated oculomotor paradigms. These studies covered various psychiatric conditions, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Tourette Syndrome (TS), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), and Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders (SSD). The findings highlighted impairments in several key oculomotor metrics shared across psychiatric conditions, and moderately correlated with self-reported and behavioral measures of inattention symptoms. These include antisaccade direction errors, fixation durations on task-relevant/irrelevant areas, the latency to first fixation, and anticipatory and intrusive saccades. These metrics are particularly important in paradigms requiring endogenous shifts of attention. Eye-tracking metrics could serve as transdiagnostic biomarkers for identifying inattention symptoms across normative and psychiatric conditions. Further research is needed to transition eye-tracking from a research tool to a clinically actionable biomarker for personalized assessment and intervention.

Anxiety and stress-related disorders are associated with abnormal neural reactivity and connectivity, particularly in the amygdala and prefrontal regions. Intranasal oxytocin (OXT) has emerged as a potential modulator of these neural circuits, but evidence for its clinical efficacy remains mixed. This systematic review aims to evaluate the effects of intranasal OXT on brain function in anxiety and stress-related disorders using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies. Four electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane central) were queried for English publications up to February 2025. The search involved utilizing various keyword combinations, including “Stress” OR “Anxiety” AND " Oxytocin”. No restrictions were imposed on these terms or any synonyms incorporated into the search approach. The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was employed to assess the quality of the included studies. We included 16 RCTs out of a total of 996 studies in this review. The findings were categorized according to specific disorder types: participants with trauma-related PTSD (n = 11), those diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (SAD) (n = 5). OXT showed promise as a treatment for conditions associated with stress and anxiety. In PTSD patients, OXT improved functional connectivity (FC) between the amygdala and cortical areas and altered amygdala reactivity, effects that were influenced by factors such as sex, symptom severity, and history of trauma or anxiety. For SAD, OXT enhanced amygdala-prefrontal cortex connectivity and decreased reactivity between the insula and amygdala. Additionally, differences between males and females in these stress related and anxiety disorders appear to affect how OXT exerts its effects. This review highlights the potential of intranasal OXT as a promising treatment for stress related and anxiety disorders, showing its ability to modulate key brain regions involved in emotion regulation and cognition, such as the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, insula, and striatum. While further research is needed to optimize its use, intranasal OXT offers a viable biological-based therapy, with effects that may differ between sexes. Not applicable.