Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
July 1, 2026
Bruno Moses, Manoj K. Doss, Enzo Tagliazucchi
1 citation
Serotonergic psychedelics induce profound alterations in consciousness, giving rise to an altered state commonly referred to as the psychedelic state. The entropic brain hypothesis proposes that brain entropy (i.e., the degree of uncertainty in the distribution of brain states) is elevated during the psychedelic state, as well as in other states characterized by an expanded breadth of...
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
May 30, 2026
Raquel Kosted, Manoj K. Doss, Jennifer J. Donegan et al.
1 citation
Although research on psychedelics (hallucinogenic serotonin 2 A or 5-HT2A agonists) has shown initial promise in ameliorating a range of psychiatric conditions, the mechanisms by which psychedelics promote therapeutic benefits have yet to be elucidated. Researchers have posited enhancements in cognitive flexibility as a transdiagnostic mechanism through which psychedelics could disrupt...
Nature Medicine
April 1, 2026
Manesh Girn, Manoj K. Doss, Leor Roseman et al.
8 citations
Psychedelic drugs are re-emerging as promising scientific and clinical tools. However, despite a rapidly expanding literature on their therapeutic value, the neural mechanisms underlying psychedelic effects remain unclear. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of acute psychedelic effects, conducted independently by several research groups, have so far yielded fragmented...
Journal of Eating Disorders
December 4, 2025
Samuli Kangaslampi, Max Wolff, Manoj K. Doss et al.
1 citation
Abstract In their recent case report article, Peck and colleagues suggested that two patients recovered dissociated traumatic memories during psilocybin treatment for anorexia nervosa. These case reports are of clinical and scientific interest and confirm that psychedelics may induce vivid memory-like experiences. However, the reports warrant scrutiny. Here, based on what is known about...
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
April 1, 2025
Manoj K. Doss, Lilian Kloft, Natasha L. Mason et al.
5 citations
Ayahuasca is an Amazonian brew with 5-HT2A-dependent psychedelic effects taken by religious groups globally. Recently, psychedelics have been shown to impair the formation of recollections (hippocampal-dependent episodic memory for specific details) and potentially distort memory while remembering. However, psychedelics spare or enhance the formation of familiarity-based memory...
Drugs
November 1, 2024
Manoj K. Doss, Annamarie Demarco, Joseph E Dunsmoor et al.
14 citations
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder with defining abnormalities in memory, and psychedelics may be promising candidates for the treatment of PTSD given their effects on multiple memory systems. Most PTSD and psychedelic research has investigated memory with fear conditioning and extinction. While fruitful, conditioning and extinction provide a limited model of the...
Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
October 1, 2024
Manoj K. Doss, Pablo Mallaroni, Natasha L. Mason et al.
7 citations
As research on psychedelics (hallucinogenic serotonin receptor 2A agonists) progresses, it is important to delineate the reliability of supposedly unique effects across this drug class. One such effect is how psychedelics impair the formation (i.e., encoding) of hippocampal-dependent recollections (retrieval of specific details) while potentially enhancing the encoding of cortical-dependent...
Commun Psychol
August 1, 2024
Hugh McGovern, Hilary J Grimmer, Manoj K. Doss et al.
48 citations
Psychedelics are recognised for their potential to re-orient beliefs. We propose a model of how psychedelics can, in some cases, lead to false insights and thus false beliefs. We first review experimental work on laboratory-based false insights and false memories. We then connect this to insights and belief formation under psychedelics using the active inference framework. We propose that...
May 26, 2024
Hugh McGovern, Nick Wellman, Brendan Hutchinson et al.
2 citations
preprint
Psychedelics (hallucinogenic 5-HT2A agonists such as psilocybin) are gaining recognition for their potential to treat a range of conditions, including anxiety-related psychopathology. Despite early promising results, the mechanisms by which psychedelic therapy alleviates anxiety are not well understood. Here, we review neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying anxiety-related psychopathology...
Psychological review
March 1, 2024
Manoj K. Doss, Jason Samaha, Frederick S. Barrett et al.
24 citations
Despite distinct classes of psychoactive drugs producing putatively unique states of consciousness, there is surprising overlap in terms of their effects on episodic memory and cognition more generally. Episodic memory is supported by multiple subprocesses that have been mostly overlooked in psychopharmacology and could differentiate drug classes. Here, we reanalyzed episodic memory confidence...
Neurotherapeutics
January 25, 2024
Bryan R. Barksdale, Manoj K. Doss, Gregory A. Fonzo et al.
22 citations
In recent years, psychedelics have generated considerable excitement and interest as potential novel therapeutics for an array of conditions, with the most advanced evidence base in the treatment of certain severe and/or treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders. An array of clinical and pre-clinical evidence has informed our current understanding of how psychedelics produce profound...
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
July 1, 2023
Manoj K. Doss, Harriet de Wit, David A Gallo
30 citations
Psychoactive drugs modulate learning and emotional processes in ways that could impact their recreational and medical use. Recent work has revealed how drugs impact different stages of processing emotional episodic memories, specifically encoding (forming memories), consolidation (stabilizing memories), and retrieval (accessing memories). Drugs administered before encoding may preferentially...
Psychedelic Medicine
June 1, 2023
Praachi Tiwari, Andrea P Berghella, Ceyda Sayalı et al.
9 citations
Background: Emerging literature suggests that classic psychedelics may have efficacy in treating mood and substance use disorders in humans. This has raised questions regarding the primary therapeutic mechanism of these compounds. Here, we hypothesize that the reversal of and resilience against learned helplessness may be an important driver of the therapeutic mechanisms of classic...
Frontiers in Psychology
January 24, 2023
Maria Beckman, Stig Poulsen, Manoj K. Doss et al.
EDITORIAL article Front. Psychol., 23 January 2023Sec. Psychology for Clinical Settings Volume 14 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1121234
ACS Chemical Neuroscience
August 24, 2022
Manoj K. Doss, Frederick S. Barrett, Philip R. Corlett
21 citations
A recent paper in Nature Medicine found that psilocybin therapy in patients with depression decreased brain network modularity (measured with task-free functional magnetic resonance imaging), an effect supposedly not found with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor S-citalopram. This decrease in network modularity also correlated with depression. Here, we raise several issues with this...
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
July 1, 2022
Drummond E-Wen Mcculloch, Gitte Moos Knudsen, Frederick Streeter Barrett et al.
14 citations
Clinical research into serotonergic psychedelics is expanding rapidly, showing promising efficacy across myriad disorders. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) is a commonly used strategy to identify psychedelic-induced changes in neural pathways in clinical and healthy populations. Here we, a large group of psychedelic imaging researchers, review the 42 research...
April 28, 2022
Manoj K. Doss, Frederick S. Barrett, Philip R. Corlett
1 citation
preprint
Here we raise issues in Daws et al. (2022) published in Nature Medicine.
Translational Psychiatry
November 8, 2021
Manoj K. Doss, Michal Považan, Monica D Rosenberg et al.
343 citations
Psilocybin has shown promise for the treatment of mood disorders, which are often accompanied by cognitive dysfunction including cognitive rigidity. Recent studies have proposed neuropsychoplastogenic effects as mechanisms underlying the enduring therapeutic effects of psilocybin. In an open-label study of 24 patients with major depressive disorder, we tested the enduring effects of psilocybin...
Brain
October 22, 2021
Manoj K. Doss, Maxwell B. Madden, Andrew Gaddis et al.
196 citations
Abstract Classic psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) have recaptured the imagination of both science and popular culture, and may have efficacy in treating a wide range of psychiatric disorders. Human and animal studies of psychedelic drug action in the brain have demonstrated the involvement of the serotonin 2A (5-HT2A) receptor and the cerebral cortex in...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
May 10, 2021
Natalie Gukasyan, David B. Yaden, Matthew W. Johnson et al.
56 citations
Abstract Psychedelic substances produce unusual and compelling changes in conscious experience that have prompted some to propose that psychedelics may provide unique insights explaining the nature of consciousness. At present, psychedelics, like other current scientific tools and methods, seem unlikely to provide information relevant to the so-called “hard problem of consciousness,” which...
Scientific Reports
October 2, 2020
Manoj K. Doss, Darrick G. May, Matthew W. Johnson et al.
52 citations
Abstract Salvinorin A (SA) is a κ-opioid receptor agonist and atypical dissociative hallucinogen found in Salvia divinorum . Despite the resurgence of hallucinogen studies, the effects of κ-opioid agonists on human brain function are not well-understood. This placebo-controlled, within-subject study used functional magnetic resonance imaging for the first time to explore the effects of inhaled...
Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
October 1, 2020
Kirsten C. S. Adam, Manoj K. Doss, Elisa Pabon et al.
2 citations
With the increasing prevalence of legal cannabis use and availability, there is an urgent need to identify cognitive impairments related to its use. It is widely believed that cannabis, or its main psychoactive component Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), impairs working memory, i.e., the ability to temporarily hold information in mind. However, our review of the literature yielded surprisingly...
Scientific Reports
February 10, 2020
Frederick S. Barrett, Manoj K. Doss, Nathan D. Sepeda et al.
375 citations
Psilocybin is a classic psychedelic compound that may have efficacy for the treatment of mood and substance use disorders. Acute psilocybin effects include reduced negative mood, increased positive mood, and reduced amygdala response to negative affective stimuli. However, no study has investigated the long-term, enduring impact of psilocybin on negative affect and associated brain function....
Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
2020
Manoj K. Doss, Jessica Weafer, David A Gallo et al.
With the growing acceptance of cannabis use, it is crucial to understand the drug's effects on episodic memory accuracy and distortion. We investigated the impact of the administration of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis, on a context-based memory illusion. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects design, healthy infrequent cannabis...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
September 23, 2019
Kirsten C. S. Adam, Manoj K. Doss, Elisa Pabon et al.
2 citations
preprint
Abstract With the increasing prevalence of legal cannabis use and availability, there is an urgent need to identify cognitive impairments related to its use. It is widely believed that cannabis, or its main psychoactive component Δ 9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), impairs working memory, i.e., the ability to temporarily hold information in mind. However, our review of the literature yielded...