Translational Psychiatry
July 11, 2026
Moira G. Semple, Sarah E. Mennenga, Ryan Smith et al.
Psychoplastogen compounds such as ketamine and MDMA have shown therapeutic promise for mood and trauma-related disorders, yet the molecular mechanisms underlying their effects remain poorly understood. Here, we applied a Brain-Epigenome-Wide Association Study (BEWAS) targeting brain-relevant genes to examine DNA methylation changes following treatment. Pre- and post-treatment blood (ketamine, N...
Physics of Life Reviews
March 1, 2026
Christopher J. Whyte, Andrew W. Corcoran, Jonathan Robinson et al.
5 citations
The multifaceted nature of subjective experience poses a challenge to the study of consciousness. Traditional neuroscientific approaches often concentrate on isolated facets, such as perceptual awareness or the global state of consciousness and construct a theory around the relevant empirical paradigms and findings. Theories of consciousness are, therefore, often difficult to compare; indeed,...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
July 3, 2025
Moira G. Semple, Sarah E. Mennenga, Ryan Smith et al.
1 citation
preprint
Psychedelic compounds such as ketamine and MDMA have shown therapeutic promise for mood and trauma-related disorders, yet their molecular mechanisms remain unclear. This study applied a Brain-Epigenome-Wide Association Study (BEWAS) to assess DNA methylation changes in brain-enriched genes following treatment. Pre- and post-treatment blood (ketamine, N = 20) and saliva (MDMA, N = 16) samples...
Translational Psychiatry
September 30, 2024
Elizabeth L. Fisher, Ryan Smith, Kyna Conn et al.
14 citations
Psilocybin has shown promise as a novel pharmacological intervention for treatment of depression, where post-acute effects of psilocybin treatment have been associated with increased positive mood and decreased pessimism. Although psilocybin is proving to be effective in clinical trials for treatment of psychiatric disorders, the information processing mechanisms affected by psilocybin are not...
medRxiv Preprint Server
September 10, 2024
Kristin L Dawson, Athena May Jean M. Carangan, Jessica Klunder et al.
4 citations
preprint
Major depressive disorder (MDD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are debilitating psychiatric conditions associated with poor health outcomes similarly observed in non-pathological aging. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic and NMDA receptor antagonist with demonstrated rapid reduction in symptoms associated with Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD) and PTSD. Ketamine’s effects on...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
May 17, 2024
Elizabeth L. Fisher, Ryan Smith, Andrew W. Corcoran et al.
2 citations
preprint
Abstract Psilocybin has shown promise as a novel pharmacological intervention for treatment of depression, where post-acute effects of psilocybin treatment have been associated with increased positive mood and decreased pessimism. Although psilocybin is proving to be effective in clinical trials for treatment of psychiatric disorders, the information processing mechanisms affected by psilocybin...
Review of Philosophy and Psychology
2022
Maxwell J D Ramstead, Anil K. Seth, Casper Hesp et al.
75 citations
This paper presents a version of neurophenomenology based on generative modelling techniques developed in computational neuroscience and biology. Our approach can be described as computational phenomenology because it applies methods originally developed in computational modelling to provide a formal model of the descriptions of lived experience in the phenomenological tradition of philosophy...
Current Research in Neurobiology
2022
Christopher J. Whyte, Jakob Hohwy, Ryan Smith
21 citations
Cognitive theories of consciousness, such as global workspace theory and higher-order theories, posit that frontoparietal circuits play a crucial role in conscious access. However, recent studies using no-report paradigms have posed a challenge to cognitive theories by demonstrating conscious accessibility in the apparent absence of prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation. To address this challenge,...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
February 11, 2020
Christopher J. Whyte, Ryan Smith
preprint
The global neuronal workspace (GNW) model has inspired over two decades of hypothesis driven research on the neural basis consciousness. However, recent studies have reported findings that are at odds with empirical predictions of the model. Further, the macro-anatomical focus of current GNW research has limited the specificity of predictions afforded by the model. In this paper we present a...