Data Sheet 1_Acute psilocybin or ethocybin leads to a sustained increase in Pavlovian aversion memory in male mice.pdf

<p>There is considerable interest in the concept that psychedelic compounds might facilitate reorganization of emotional processing with therapeutic benefit; in particular, amelioration of excessive focus on past, current and potential-future aversive events, a dominant emotional-cognitive state in stress-related affective disorders. Translational animal models can advance understanding of specific aspects of this concept, namely, those relating to subconscious emotional memories and their neurobiology.

In male mice, chronic social stress (CSS) leads to excessive tone/context-foot shock Pavlovian aversion learning (PAL) and memory (PAM), measured as time spent in freezing behavior, and provides a model for generalized excessive focus on aversion. Sub-chronic administration of SSRI antidepressant between PAL and PAM reverses the excessive PAM of CSS mice. Here we applied the model to investigate acute and sustained behavioral and neurobiological effects of psilocybin (PSY) and ethocybin (ETH).