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"Secrets of an Acid Head," by Dana Mackenzie. New Scientist, 23 June 2001, pages 26-30.
In the 1920s, a University of Chicago neuroscientist categorized hallucinations into four types: tunnels, spirals, cobwebs, and honeycombs. Today, mathematician and neuroscientist Jack Cowan, also at Chicago, is trying to mathematically model brain activity that could produce hallucinations. Cowan and co-workers focused on modeling neural activity in the visual cortex to see what kind of activity could bring about hallucinations. One kind of model was used for tunnels and spirals, and another for cobwebs and honeycombs. "LSD users see spirals and tunnels because those are the real-world objects that fit the patterns of neural firing in their cortex," Mackenzie writes.
--- Allyn Jackson
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