Effects of Chemical Stimulation of Electrically-Induced Phosphenes on their Bandwidth, Shape, Number and Intensity

Abstract

The perception of patterns not resulting from viewing external objects but stimulated by cranial electrodes with pulse currents within the electroencephalographic frequency range (‘phosphenes’) has been investigated in earlier work. The experiments described in this paper were undertaken to observe in one subject effects of chemical stimulation (by mescaline, psilocybin and LSD) on electrically-induced phosphenes as to their bandwidth, shape, number and intensity. An increase of two electrically-induced ‘control’ patterns in intensity and bandwidth and the production of a great number of new phosphene patterns with large bandwidth and intensity have been observed. These new drug-induced phosphenes prevailed during simultaneous electrical and maximum chemical stimulation (Fig. 22). From the experimental results a cybernetic model of a pulse-driven phosphene resonator can be derived.