medRxiv Preprint Server
May 31, 2026
Madeline V. Stein, Matt Butler, Sarah Chapman et al.
preprint
Psychedelic drugs are emerging as potentially efficacious tools for treating psychiatric conditions and probing the neural basis of consciousness. Although drug administration context is widely believed to shape psychedelic effects, it remains unclear whether it can independently generate placebo and nocebo effects resembling psychedelic experiences and side effects. In a pre-registered...
Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science
July 1, 2025
Benjamin Brake, Lillian Wieder, Natasha Hughes et al.
5 citations
Dissociative states, characterized by discontinuities in awareness and perception, occur in a diverse array of psychiatric disorders and contexts. These states have been experimentally modeled in the laboratory through various induction methods, but relatively little is known about the efficacy and comparability of different experimental methods. In this meta-analysis, we quantified...
PCN reports : psychiatry and clinical neurosciences
December 1, 2023
Simon Ruffell, Max Crosland-Wood, Rob Palmer et al.
37 citations
Ayahuasca is a psychedelic plant brew originating from the Amazon rainforest. It is formed from two basic components, the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and a plant containing the potent psychedelic dimethyltryptamine (DMT), usually Psychotria viridis. Here we review the history of ayahuasca and describe recent work on its pharmacology, phenomenological responses, and clinical applications. There...
Psychopharmacology
March 26, 2022
Giulia Piazza, Georges Iskandar, Vanessa Hennessy et al.
14 citations
A significant obstacle to an improved understanding of pathological dissociative and psychosis-like states is the lack of readily implemented pharmacological models of these experiences. Ketamine has dissociative and psychotomimetic effects but can be difficult to use outside of medical and clinical-research facilities. Alternatively, nitrous oxide (N2O) — like ketamine, a dissociative...
Psychopharmacology
November 26, 2018
Steliana Yanakieva, Naya Polychroni, Neiloufar Family et al.
169 citations
RATIONALE: Previous research demonstrating that lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) produces alterations in time perception has implications for its impact on conscious states and a range of psychological functions that necessitate precise interval timing. However, interpretation of this research is hindered by methodological limitations and an inability to dissociate direct neurochemical effects...
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
July 1, 2018
Clément E Lemercier, Devin B. Terhune
Recent research on psychedelics and hypnosis demonstrates the value of both methods in the treatment of a range of psychopathologies with overlapping applications and neurophenomenological features. The potential of harnessing the power of suggestion to influence the phenomenological response to psychedelics toward more therapeutic action has remained unexplored in recent research and thereby...
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
February 4, 2017
Devin B. Terhune, Axel Cleeremans, Amir Raz et al.
Hypnosis is a unique form of top-down regulation in which verbal suggestions are capable of eliciting pronounced changes in a multitude of psychological phenomena. Hypnotic suggestion has been widely used both as a technique for studying basic science questions regarding human consciousness but also as a method for targeting a range of symptoms within a therapeutic context. Here we provide a...
The American journal of clinical hypnosis
October 1, 2016
Devin B. Terhune, Etzel Cardeña
53 citations
Although most definitions of hypnosis consider inductions as the initial stage in a hypnosis protocol, knowledge of inductions remains poor and uninformed by recent developments in theory and research. It is frequently argued that inductions play a critical role in hypnotic responding or, by contrast, are largely interchangeable and unimportant. Drawing on the literature on suggestibility,...
Neuropsychologia
April 5, 2016
Devin B. Terhune, David Luke, Mendel Kaelen et al.
45 citations
The induction of synaesthesia in non-synaesthetes has the potential to illuminate the mechanisms that contribute to the development of this condition and the shaping of its phenomenology. Previous research suggests that lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) reliably induces synaesthesia-like experiences in non-synaesthetes. However, these studies suffer from a number of methodological limitations...
Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior
February 1, 2013
Etzel Cardeña, Peter Jönsson, Devin B. Terhune et al.
151 citations
After a hypnotic induction, medium and highly hypnotizable individuals often report spontaneous alterations in various dimensions of consciousness. Few studies investigating these experiences have controlled for the inherent demands of specific hypnotic suggestions and fewer still have considered their dynamic properties and neural correlates. We adopted a neurophenomenological approach to...
Frontiers in Psychology
2013
David Luke, Devin B. Terhune
81 citations
Despite the general consensus that synaesthesia emerges at an early developmental stage and is only rarely acquired during adulthood, the transient induction of synaesthesia with chemical agents has been frequently reported in research on different psychoactive substances. Nevertheless, these effects remain poorly understood and have not been systematically incorporated. Here we review the...
Seeing and Perceiving
2012
David Luke, Devin B. Terhune, Ross Friday
11 citations
The neurobiology of synaesthesia is receiving growing attention in the search for insights into consciousness, such as the binding problem. One way of decoding the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this phenomenon is to investigate the induction of synaesthesia via neurochemical agents, as commonly occurs with psychedelic substances. How synaesthesia is affected by drugs can also help inform...
Cortex
June 6, 2008
Devin B. Terhune
60 citations
The visual content of out-of-body experiences (OBEs) has received little attention but a number of theories of OBEs include implicit predictions regarding the determinants of this phenomenological feature. Hypnagogic imagery and unusual sleep experiences, weak synaesthesia and preference for employing object and spatial visual imagic cognitive styles were psychometrically measured along with...
Madeline Victore Stein, Devin B. Terhune
1 citation
preprint
The resurgence of interest in psychedelics has led to their widespread, and often uncritical, promotion within both popular media and scientific communities. This heightened enthusiasm complicates assessments of the neurocognitive effects of psychedelics as well as their efficacy as adjuncts to psychotherapy. A key challenge for this nascent field involves understanding how suggestion effects...