Communications Biology
August 31, 2026
Niloufar Pouyan, Chelsea Kaplan, Tony E. Larkin et al.
Pharmacological agents that alter consciousness, including classic psychedelics and non-classic agents such as nitrous oxide, are known to affect multiple domains of conscious experience, including visual perception. While most neuroimaging studies rely on resting-state data to characterize altered states of consciousness, task-based approaches enable investigation of specific perceptual...
Cell Reports
August 1, 2026
Rui Dai, Hyunwoo Jang, A. Hudetz et al.
Understanding the relationship of conscious states to large-scale brain dynamics remains a central challenge in neuroscience. Here, diverse pharmacological and physiological perturbations-including psychedelics, sleep, and propofol sedation-are used to examine integration-segregation organization of brain networks across altered states of consciousness in humans using functional MRI. Across...
Current biology : CB
July 2, 2026
Youngjai Park, Younghwa Cha, Hyoungkyu Kim et al.
Information continuously flows between regions of the human brain, forming patterns that shift across states of consciousness, cognitive modes, and neuropsychiatric conditions. While functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reveals large-scale activity changes over seconds, the electrophysiological dynamics governing sub-second reconfiguration remain poorly understood. Here, relative phase...
JAMA Psychiatry
June 1, 2026
Ben Deverett, Duan Li, Theresa R. Lii et al.
1 citation
Ketamine has well-known dissociative, analgesic, and antidepressant properties, but it is unknown whether the neurophysiologic effects that are associated with these properties can be modulated separately from one another. Considering that specific cortical oscillations have been associated with specific therapeutic effects, modulating selective aspects of ketamine neurophysiology could inform...
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
June 1, 2026
Panagiotis Fotiadis, Hyunwoo Jang, Rui Dai et al.
Brain waves are ubiquitous phenomena of human brain activity. As they propagate, they coordinate neural communication, shaping conscious perception. Understanding how brain waves unfold across space and time is thus critical for uncovering the neural mechanisms that support and suppress consciousness. Here, we analyzed data from the Human Connectome Project alongside multiple independent human...
Research Square
January 12, 2026
Niloufar Pouyan, Chelsea M Kaplan, Tony E. Larkin et al.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) produces perceptual alterations and changes in large-scale brain network organization, yet its effects on task-specific visual processing remain unclear. Given the prominence of visual alterations during psychedelic exposure, we investigated how subanesthetic N2O modulates functional connectivity during visual stimulation. Thirteen healthy adults completed a...
Scientific Data
January 9, 2026
Zirui Huang, Vijay Tarnal, Panagiotis Fotiadis et al.
Anesthesia has revolutionized surgical practice and offers a controlled model to study the neurobiology of consciousness. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown that anesthesia primarily disrupts connectivity across association cortices, suggesting that impaired integration between higher-order brain regions underlies unconsciousness. However, traditional fMRI paradigms...
Journal of Neuroscience
December 19, 2025
Nicolas G. Glynos, Emma R. Huels, Trent Groenhout et al.
11 citations
N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a serotonergic psychedelic that is being investigated for the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Although the neurophysiological effects of DMT in humans are well characterized, similar studies in animal models and data on the neurochemical effects of DMT are generally lacking, which are critical for a mechanistic understanding. Here, we combined behavioral...
medRxiv Preprint Server
December 16, 2025
Derek Newman, Charlotte Maschke, George A. Mashour et al.
preprint
Background Propofol exposure can produce heterogenous neural responses, from the expected suppression to transient paradoxical excitation. EEG measures of signal complexity and entropy have emerged as reliable markers of consciousness, but different types of complexity and entropy measures are often conflated. We used Type I and II complexity measures on the Complexity–Entropy Causal Plane...
bioRxiv
November 26, 2025
Rui Dai, Rodrigo Cofré, Christopher Timmermann et al.
preprint
The mechanism of psychedelic drug action is a dynamic area of neuroscience, with two major lines of investigation: (1) laboratory studies at the molecular and cellular level, and (2) human neuroimaging studies of functional brain networks. Despite considerable progress, there remains insufficient understanding of the link between molecular/cellular substrates of psychedelics and the whole-brain...
medRxiv
August 7, 2025
Ben Deverett, Duan Li, Theresa R. Lii et al.
preprint
Structured Abstract Importance Ketamine has well known dissociative, analgesic, and antidepressant properties, but it is unknown whether the neurophysiologic effects that are associated with these properties can be modulated separately from one another. Given prior studies that link specific cortical oscillations with specific therapeutic effects, it is likely that modulating selective aspects...
Sleep
May 26, 2025
Alejandra Mondino, Amir Jadidian, Brandon A Toth et al.
4 citations
The preoptic area of the hypothalamus is key for the control of sleep onset and sleep homeostasis. Although traditionally considered exclusively somnogenic, recent studies identified a group of preoptic glutamatergic neurons that promote wakefulness. Specifically, our previous investigations demonstrated that chemogenetic stimulation of glutamatergic neurons within the medial-lateral preoptic...
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
May 1, 2025
Niloufar Pouyan, Jacob S. Aday, Steven E. Harte et al.
1 citation
Patients with refractory conditions often identify themselves with their illness, which affects multiple aspects of their lives. The pictorial representation of illness and self measure (PRISM) is a tool used to assess the enmeshment of individuals' perception of self with a particular medical condition, broadly termed self-condition enmeshment. This study aimed to evaluate changes in PRISM...
Universität Zürich, ZORA
May 1, 2025
Niloufar Pouyan, Jacob S. Aday, Steven E. Harte et al.
Background: Patients with refractory conditions often identify themselves with their illness, which affects multiple aspects of their lives. The pictorial representation of illness and self measure (PRISM) is a tool used to assess the enmeshment of individuals' perception of self with a particular medical condition, broadly termed self-condition enmeshment. Aims: This study aimed to evaluate...
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
March 28, 2025
Youngjai Park, Younghwa Cha, Hyoungkyu Kim et al.
preprint
Information continuously flows between regions of the human brain, exhibiting distinct patterns that dynamically shift across states of consciousness, cognitive modes, and neuropsychiatric conditions. In this study, we introduce Relative Phase Analysis (RPA), a method that leverages phase-lead/lag relationships to reveal the real-time dynamics of dominant directional patterns and their rapid...
Translational Psychiatry
March 25, 2025
Brian H Silverstein, Nicholas Kolbman, Amanda Nelson et al.
8 citations
Psilocybin produces an altered state of consciousness in humans and is associated with complex spatiotemporal changes in cortical networks. Given the emphasis on rodent models for mechanistic studies, there is a need for characterization of the effect of psilocybin on cortex-wide network dynamics. Previous electroencephalographic studies of psychedelics in rodents have primarily used sparse...
Frontiers in Pain Research
March 18, 2025
Jenna McAfee, Avinash Hosanagar, Vijay Tarnal et al.
18 citations
Introduction Fibromyalgia (FM) is the prototypical nociplastic pain condition, characterized by widespread pain and issues with cognition, mood, and sleep. Currently, there are limited treatment options available that effectively treat FM symptoms. Psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) is an emerging combined drug-therapy intervention, but no studies to-date have investigated PAT for FM. Methods...
bioRxiv Preprint Server
January 22, 2025
Emma R. Huels, Nicholas Kolbman, Christopher W Fields et al.
4 citations
preprint
Serotonergic psychedelics enhance neurophysiological complexity and the repertoire of brain states, whereas general anesthetics produce opposite effects. Serotonergic psychedelics are also known to increase wakefulness and reduce sleep time in rodents. Therefore, we hypothesized that 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodopamphetamine (DOI), a serotonergic psychedelic, will reverse general anesthesia and restore...
Nature Communications
October 24, 2024
Hyunwoo Jang, George A. Mashour, Anthony G. Hudetz et al.
Consciousness requires a dynamic balance of integration and segregation in brain networks. We report an fMRI-based metric, the integration-segregation difference (ISD), which captures two key network properties: network efficiency (integration) and clustering (segregation). With this metric, we quantify brain state transitions from conscious wakefulness to unresponsiveness induced by the...
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
October 23, 2024
Rui Dai, Hyunwoo Jang, Anthony G. Hudetz et al.
1 citation
preprint
Understanding neural mechanisms of consciousness remains a challenging question in neuroscience. A central debate in the field concerns whether consciousness arises from global interactions that involve multiple brain regions or focal neural activity, such as in sensory cortex. Additionally, global theories diverge between the Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW) hypothesis, which emphasizes frontal...
Nature Communications
September 9, 2024
Zirui Huang, George A. Mashour, Anthony G. Hudetz
23 citations
Research into the role of thalamocortical circuits in anesthesia-induced unconsciousness is difficult due to anatomical and functional complexity. Prior neuroimaging studies have examined either the thalamus as a whole or focused on specific subregions, overlooking the distinct neuronal subtypes like core and matrix cells. We conducted a study of heathy volunteers and functional magnetic...
Brain Sciences
August 30, 2024
Hyunwoo Jang, Rui Dai, George A. Mashour et al.
Accurate and generalizable classification of brain states is essential for understanding their neural underpinnings and improving clinical diagnostics. Traditionally, functional connectivity patterns and graph-theoretic metrics have been utilized. However, cortical gradient features, which reflect global brain organization, offer a complementary approach. We hypothesized that a machine learning...
Anesthesiology
June 1, 2024
George A. Mashour, UnCheol Lee, Dinesh Pal et al.
8 citations
The near-death experience has been reported since antiquity and is often characterized by the perception of light, interactions with other entities, and life recall. Near-death experiences can occur in a variety of situations, but they have been studied systematically after in-hospital cardiac arrest, with an incidence of 10 to 20%. Long attributed to metaphysical or supernatural causes, there...
Physiology
May 1, 2024
Rachel Summerfield, Trent Groenhout, Tiecheng Liu et al.
Psychedelics, including N, N, Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), are being increasingly explored for therapeutic potential to treat psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. These and other psychiatric conditions have a bidirectional relationship with sleep patterns but the impact of psychedelics, particularly DMT, on sleep architecture is incompletely...
bioRxiv
April 15, 2024
Hyunwoo Jang, George A. Mashour, Anthony G. Hudetz et al.
preprint
Consciousness requires a dynamic balance of integration and segregation in functional brain networks. An optimal integration-segregation balance depends on two key aspects of functional connectivity: global efficiency (i.e., integration) and clustering (i.e., segregation). We developed a new fMRI-based measure, termed the integration-segregation difference (ISD), which captures both aspects. We...