The French chemist Robert Goutarel (14) hypothesized that ibogaine treatment involves a state with functional aspects shared by the brain states of REM sleep, with important effects on learning and memory. During the
REM state, there is believed to be reconsolidation of learned information in a state of
heightened neural plasticity, with the reprocessing of previously learned information and the formation of new associations (192,193).
Goutarel suggested that a REM-like state may be induced by ibogaine, which corresponds to a window of heightened neural plasticity, during which there may be weakening of the pathological linkages between cues and representations of the drug incentive and the motiva- tional states with which they have become paired (14). Analogous to the reconsolidation of learned information that is thought to occur during the REM state (192,193), Goutarel theorized that the pathological learning of addiction was modified during ibogaine treatment. He appears to have
based his theoretical formulation mainly
on reports of the phenomenological experiences of awake ibogaine-treated subjects that share features in common with dreams. Goutarel’s hypothesis is speculative, but nonetheless has an interesting apparent consistency with the literature on the relationship of learning and addiction and the physiologic function of the REM EEG state with regard to the consolidation of learned information.
There is some evidence that may be viewed as consistent with Goutarel’s hypothesis. Goutarel’s belief in a relationship of the ibogaine-treated EEG state to that of REM is supported by studies in
animals treated with ibogaine that report an apparently activated or desynchronized EEG state consistent with arousal, vigilance, or REM sleep (90,191). The observation that ibogaine enhanced an atropine-sensitive theta frequency rhythm (191) suggests the possible involvement of ascending cholinergic input, which is an essential determinant of EEG desynchronization during REM sleep (192). The possible reconsolidation of learned information due to heightened plasticity during both the REM and ibogaine-induced desynchronized EEG states is suggested by the observation that EEG dyssynchrony is associated with an increased facilitation of Hebbian covariance (194), which is believed to be an important determinant of the neural plasticity involved in consolidation of learning and memory.
Also, with regard to a possible analogy of the REM and ibogaine induced brain states, some ibogaine treatment guides have anecdotally mentioned that they have observed REM-like eye movements in awake patients during treatments (195,196).