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...
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...
Journal of Restorative Medicine
2025
Matthew Hicks, Richard E. Harris
3 citations
Background: Shamanism is a transcultural, heterogeneous worldview that is primarily concerned with human interaction with the spirit world. Foremost among the many services provided by practitioners of shamanism is the healing of the mind, body, and spirit. Methods: While most literature on shamanism consists of ethnographies of cultures that practice shamanism, the present literature search...
Frontiers in Psychology
2025
Emma R. Huels, Lily Carter, Gang Xu et al.
Previous studies have demonstrated acute changes in brain activity that occur during shamanic journeying-an ancient spiritual practice used for physical, psychological, and spiritual healing. However, the effect of shamanic journeying on other physiological measures, such as heart rate variability, remains unknown. We investigated changes in heart rate variability (HRV) during sessions of...
Commun Biol
December 19, 2023
Rui Dai, Zirui Huang, Tony E. Larkin et al.
7 citations
Psychedelic concentrations of nitrous oxide reduce functional differentiation in frontoparietal and somatomotor cortical networks.
Neuroimage
June 1, 2023
Rui Dai, Tony E. Larkin, Zirui Huang et al.
49 citations
The neurobiology of the psychedelic experience is not fully understood. Identifying common brain network changes induced by both classical (i.e., acting at the 5-HT2 receptor) and non-classical psychedelics would provide mechanistic insight into state-specific characteristics. We analyzed whole-brain functional connectivity based on resting-state fMRI data in humans, acquired before and during...
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
March 18, 2021
Emma R. Huels, Hyoungkyu Kim, UnCheol Lee et al.
51 citations
Psychedelics have been recognized as model interventions for studying altered states of consciousness. However, few empirical studies of the shamanic state of consciousness, which is anecdotally similar to the psychedelic state, exist. We investigated the neural correlates of shamanic trance using high-density electroencephalography (EEG) in 24 shamanic practitioners and 24 healthy controls...
British Journal of Anaesthesia
April 13, 2018
Phillip E. Vlisides, Tarik Bel‐bahar, Amanda Nelson et al.
117 citations
BackgroundDespite its designation as a 'dissociative anaesthetic,' the dissociative and psychoactive effects of ketamine remain incompletely understood. The goal of this study was to characterise the subjective experiences and accompanying EEG changes with subanaesthetic doses of ketamine.MethodsHigh-density EEG was recorded in 15 human volunteers before, during, and after subanaesthetic...