Originally Posted by LighrkVader
That's absolutely true. But mammals have very similar pineal systems across the board. The branching into different pineal systems go wayyyy back. Before mammals were even a thing. So if it's in rat's it is likely to be in other mammals as well. That is (I assume) why they haven't checked the brains of pigs or chimps or whatever. Which would not be hard to do.
Oh I'm not debating that, this is certainly the case. Maybe I'm just being a pedant for mentioning it, but considering all of these ideas and hypotheses are contingent upon human beings actually being capable of synthesizing it, I think it's important to acknowledge that we don't actually know or have any kind of actual evidence for this being the case, even with the similarity among mammals and parts of the mammalian brain.
Originally Posted by LighrkVader
Anyhoo. What role it plays in the brain we obviously don't know. But the pineal gland is largely there to control our circadian rythms and thereby sleep. So if it's able to synthsize DMT it's not so far fetched to assume that the DMT is involved in something related to sleep... Like dreams... or maybe it's being used all the time even when were awake. My experience with DMT definitely felt dreamy, much more so than other psychedelics.
The pineal gland doesp play a large role in the regulation of our circadian rhythm, but that doesn't mean it's all that heavily implicated in dreaming. For the most part, its role as a regulator is to detect blue wavelengths of light (which correspond to sunlight and therefore daytime), and when they are detected, to suppress the synthesis of melatonin. Melatonin does have affects on dreaming, mostly because its suppression of REM states, but otherwise it doesn't play any major role in the dreaming phenomenon. Since it has a relatively short half-life, the REM suppression winds up causing minor rebound... which is at least in part what's responsible for the occurrence of more vivid and possibly bizarre dreams when you take it as a supplement.
As far as DMT's qualitative experience being different from other psychedelics goes, it has a bit more unique of a pharmacological profile than other psychedelics do. Most notably is its rather high binding affinity for the sigma 1 receptor, which is actually the receptor n,n-DMT is hypothesized to be an endogenous ligand of. Sigma 1 receptors don't really have much at all to do with sleep or dreaming. Agonism of this receptor is actually more associated with the induction of psychosis or psychotomimetic states of consciousness.
Psychedelics, when compared to dissociative anesthetics, produce an incomplete model of animal psychosis in lab rodents, whereas the dissociatives are capable of producing states totally indistinguishable from schizophrenic psychotic breaks. The dissociatives most commonly used to cause psychosis in lab rodents are those with, similar to DMT, very high affinity for the sigma 1 receptor--drugs like PCP.
I know that many people (including myself) who have taken dissociatives that are also sigma 1 agonists (DXM, PCP, various PCP analogs such as 3-MeO-PCP and 4-MeO-PCP, although not so much ones like ketamine) typically wind up describing the experiences as like being in a waking dream, or being unable to tell if they are, in fact, dreaming or not. I don't know if DMT's sigma 1 agonism is actually the cause of the dreamy quality you've experienced with it, but those dissociative experiences seem to corroborate the idea that it may be a significant factor in producing it.
Originally Posted by LighrkVader
And if were doing this strictly scientificly, then a substance that only plays a role in the last moments of life doesn't make sense from any evolutionary standpoint that I can think of.
Well, you have to remember, mutations and their effects on us are random. Even though certain traits resulting from these mutations are selected for by "nature", this doesn't mean all of them are inherently useful for survival or even make sense at all to exist or persist through the generations. On top of natural selection, there's also (human, intelligent) sexual selection to consider, which really just further increases the odds that traits with little or no value to survival itself propagate throughout the gene pool. Even traits that hinder us can remain so long as enough of the population carrying the genes responsible for them continue to survive in great enough numbers and reproduce (which is becoming increasingly more likely given our species' intelligence and social nature, and therefore, proclivity to help one another out). White people's skin's lack of melanin, the lack of protection from UV radiation that comes with that, and the risk it carries for melanoma (especially in some regions of the world) is a good example. That, or the fact we lost almost all of our fur/body hair (presumably from hunting in water and swimming in coastal regions), meaning anywhere not immediately located around the equator, we require animal furs for adequate warmth to survive.
I'm not saying one way or another what DMT's endogenous role is or isn't, if it has one. I'm just treating the matter in a way I feel is appropriately cautious and thorough. I'm cool with speculation, but only insofar as we all understand and keep in mind the facts.
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