Translational Psychiatry
August 1, 2026
Patrick A. McConnell, Jackson Raffety, Andrew Li et al.
Abstract Psychedelic drugs exert rapid and profound effects on human consciousness [1–7] and are increasingly being investigated for their therapeutic potential [8–14]. Yet the transcriptional programs through which they may reshape brain function and structure remain incompletely understood, in part because the available evidence is heterogeneous and largely preclinical [15, 16]. In a...
Hum Brain Mapp
July 1, 2026
Lorenzo Pasquini, Jakub Vohryzek, Anira Escrichs et al.
Modeled Long-Term Effects of Psilocybin on Dynamic Activity and Effective Connectivity of Fronto-Striatal-Thalamic Circuits.
Nature Communications
May 5, 2026
T Lyons, M Spriggs, L Kerkelä et al.
19 citations
Psychedelics have robust effects on acute brain function and long-term behavior but whether they also cause enduring functional and anatomical brain changes is largely unknown. In an exploratory, placebo-controlled, within-subjects, electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study in 28 healthy, entirely psychedelic-naive participants, anatomical and functional brain...
Philosophical Psychology
April 10, 2026
Eric Rundquist, Diego Nicolás Monasterio López, Juan Jonathan Oyarzo Alvarado et al.
This article presents the results of a Cognitive Linguistic analysis of metaphors used in a series of interviews by a single healthy volunteer following four moderate-to-high dosing sessions with psilocybin. The interviews were conducted by members of a human psychedelic research lab in a deep-sampling fMRI and EEG brain imaging study, allowing the participant to recount experiences under the...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
November 21, 2025
Joseph C. C. Chen, Gabriella Mace, Avery Ostrand et al.
preprint
Abstract Awe is a positive emotion often accompanied by sensations of vastness and unity, with known benefits for well-being and social behavior. However, its neural underpinnings remain poorly understood. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) and autonomic physiology in 23 healthy older participants while they watched a nature-based audiovisual film and subjectively rated awe events. Awe...
Research Square
October 3, 2025
Patrick A. McConnell, Jackson Raffety, Andrew Li et al.
Cross-species mapping of psychedelic gene expression reveals links to the 5HT2A receptor, cortical layers, and human accelerated regions
Imaging Neuroscience
April 16, 2025
Lorenzo Pasquini, Alexander J. Simon, Courtney L. Gallen et al.
4 citations
Abstract N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a serotonergic psychedelic, known to rapidly induce short-lasting alterations in conscious experience, characterized by a profound and immersive sense of physical transcendence alongside rich and vivid auditory distortions and visual imagery. Multimodal neuroimaging data paired with dynamic analysis techniques offer a valuable approach for identifying...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
November 7, 2024
Lorenzo Pasquini, Jakub Vohryzek, Anira Escrichs et al.
4 citations
preprint
Abstract Psilocybin has been shown to induce fast and sustained improvements in mental well-being across various populations, yet its long-term mechanisms of action are not fully understood. Initial evidence suggests that longitudinal functional and structural brain changes implicate fronto-striatal-thalamic (FST) circuitry, a broad system involved in goal-directed behavior and motivational...
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry
September 26, 2024
Hannes Kettner, Leor Roseman, Adam Gazzaley et al.
Reply to Letter to the Editor: "Psychedelics in Older Adults: Difficulties of a Clear Therapeutic Evidence".
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry
May 19, 2024
Hannes Kettner, Leor Roseman, Adam Gazzaley et al.
18 citations
OBJECTIVE: Affective symptoms such as anxiety, low mood, and loneliness are prevalent and highly debilitating symptoms among older adults (OA). Serotonergic psychedelics are currently investigated as novel interventions for affective disorders, yet little is known regarding their effects in OA. We investigated the mental health effects and psychological mechanisms of guided psychedelic group...
Research Square
March 8, 2024
Hannes Kettner, Leor Roseman, Adam Gazzaley et al.
5 citations
Affective symptoms such as anxiety, low mood, and loneliness are prevalent and highly debilitating symptoms among older adults (OA). Serotonergic psychedelics are novel experimental interventions for affective disorders, yet little is known regarding their effects in OA. Using a prospective cohort design, we identified 62 OA (age ≥ 60 years) and 62 matched younger adults (YA) who completed...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
November 9, 2023
Fernando E. Rosas, Pedro A. M. Mediano, Christopher Timmermann et al.
14 citations
preprint
A growing body of work shows that autonomic signals provide a privileged evidence-stream to capture various aspects of subjective and neural states. This work investigates the potential for autonomic markers to track the effects of psychedelics — potent psychoactive drugs with important scientific and clinical value. For this purpose, we introduce a novel Bayesian framework to estimate the...
Trends Cogn Sci
February 3, 2023
Manesh Girn, Fernando E. Rosas, Richard E. Daws et al.
76 citations
Recent findings suggesting the potential transdiagnostic efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapy have fostered the need to deepen our understanding of psychedelic brain action. Functional neuroimaging investigations have found that psychedelics reduce the functional segregation of large-scale brain networks. However, beyond this general trend, findings have been largely inconsistent. We argue...
Neuropharmacology
December 27, 2022
Robin Carhart-Harris, Shamil Chandaria, David Erritzøe et al.
106 citations
This theoretical article revives a classical bridging construct, canalization, to describe a new model of a general factor of psychopathology. To achieve this, we have distinguished between two types of plasticity, an early one that we call 'TEMP' for 'Temperature or Entropy Mediated Plasticity', and another, we call 'canalization', which is close to Hebbian plasticity. These two forms of...
Journal of Affective Disorders
July 1, 2022
Thomas D Hull, Matteo Malgaroli, Adam Gazzaley et al.
59 citations
BACKGROUND At-home Ketamine-assisted therapy (KAT) with psychosocial support and remote monitoring through telehealth platforms addresses access barriers, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Large-scale evaluation of this approach is needed for questions regarding safety and effectiveness for depression and anxiety. METHODS In this prospective study, a large outpatient sample received KAT over...
J Psychopharmacol
April 22, 2021
Robin Carhart-Harris, Anne C Wagner, Manish Agrawal et al.
54 citations
Favourable regulatory assessments, liberal policy changes, new research centres and substantial commercial investment signal that psychedelic therapy is making a major comeback. Positive findings from modern trials are catalysing developments, but it is questionable whether current confirmatory trials are sufficient for advancing our understanding of safety and best practice. Here we suggest...
Brain Connectivity
March 1, 2021
Lucie Bréchet, David A Ziegler, Alexander J. Simon et al.
Sustained attention and working memory were improved in young adults after they engaged in a recently developed, closed-loop, digital meditation practice. Whether this type of meditation also has a sustained effect on dominant resting-state networks is currently unknown. In this study, we examined the resting brain states before and after a period of breath-focused, digital meditation training...
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
2020
Helen Y. Weng, Jarrod A Lewis-Peacock, Frederick M Hecht et al.
9 citations
Meditation practices are often used to cultivate interoception or internally-oriented attention to bodily sensations, which may improve health via cognitive and emotional regulation of bodily signals. However, it remains unclear how meditation impacts internal attention (IA) states due to lack of measurement tools that can objectively assess mental states during meditation practice itself, and...
Frontiers in Psychology
2020
Helen Y. Weng, Mushim P. Ikeda, Jarrod A Lewis-Peacock et al.
Mindfulness and compassion meditation are thought to cultivate prosocial behavior. However, the lack of diverse representation within both scientific and participant populations in contemplative neuroscience may limit generalizability and translation of prior findings. To address these issues, we propose a research framework called Intersectional Neuroscience which adapts research procedures to...
Nature Human Behaviour
June 3, 2019
David A Ziegler, Alexander J. Simon, Courtney L. Gallen et al.
Attention is a fundamental cognitive process that is critical for essentially all aspects of higher-order cognition and real-world activities. Younger generations have deeply embraced information technology and multitasking in their personal lives, school and the workplace, creating myriad challenges to their attention. While improving sustained attention in healthy young adults would be...
Consciousness and Cognition
May 1, 2015
Christina Merrick, Melika Farnia, Tiffany K Jantz et al.
The stream of consciousness often appears whimsical and free from external control. Recent advances, however, reveal that the stream is more susceptible to external influence than previously assumed. Thoughts can be triggered by external stimuli in a manner that is involuntary, systematic, and nontrivial. Based on these advances, our experimental manipulation systematically triggered a sequence...
Helen Y. Weng, Mushim P. Ikeda, Jarrod A Lewis-Peacock et al.
Mindfulness and compassion meditation are thought to cultivate prosocial behavior. However, the lack of diverse representation within both scientific and participant populations in contemplative neuroscience may limit generalizability and translation of prior findings. To address these issues, we propose a research framework called Intersectional Neuroscience which adapts research procedures to...