Research published in Communications Biology

Subanesthetic nitrous oxide alters large-scale network organization and insula connectivity during visual stimulation

Communications Biology August 31, 2026 Niloufar Pouyan, Chelsea M 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...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-026-10838-0 Full text

Author Correction: Neural and molecular changes during a mind-body reconceptualization, meditation, and open label placebo healing retreat: an observational study.

Communications Biology July 25, 2026 Alex Jinich-Diamant, Sierra Simpson, Juan P Zuniga-Hertz et al.

Following publication of this article, the title has been updated to clarify that the study was observational rather than interventional, with text added in the Results and Methods to specify which analyses were pre-registered. The competing interests statement has also been updated to clarify the competing interests of Joe Dispenza and state those of Hemal H. Patel. The changes are made in the...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-026-10719-6 Full text

Multilayer brain network analysis in mice reveals ketamine-induced reorganization of brain- wide fluctuations and gut-brain axis

Communications Biology July 3, 2026 Fengkai He, Xiaojun Xu, Y Y Zhu et al.

Depression involves dysregulation across distributed cortico-limbic circuits, and ketamine is notable for its rapid antidepressant effects. Although depression and ketamine treatment have been linked to altered brain network topology, how within-frequency and cross-frequency coupling are jointly reorganized at the brain-wide level remains unclear. Here, we developed a frequency-varying...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-026-10606-0 Full text Default mode network Habenula Local field potential Biological neural network +14

Non-duality in brain and experience of advanced meditators—key role for intrinsic neural timescales

Communications Biology June 12, 2026 Saketh Malipeddi, Arun Sasidharan, Bianca Ventura et al.

Distinguishing between self (internal) and environment (external) is fundamental to human experience, yet mind-body traditions describe non-dual states where this boundary dissolves. However, the neural basis of non-duality remains underexplored. We investigate this in advanced and novice meditators from the Isha Yoga tradition and meditation-naïve controls using psychological scales and...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-026-10473-9 Full text Meditation Cognition Neural activity Operationalization +5

Psilocybin ameliorates neuropathic pain-like behaviour in mice and facilitates gabapentin-mediated analgesia.

Communications Biology April 24, 2026 Tatum Askey, Daniel Allen-Ross, Daniil Luzyanin et al.

Chronic pain states remain challenging to control with current drug therapies. Here, we demonstrate that a single dose of psilocybin produces a sustained anti-nociceptive effect in chronic neuropathic pain models in male and female mice, mediated primarily by 5-HT2A receptors. Critically, psilocybin significantly potentiates the analgesic efficacy of gabapentin, a standard-of-care treatment,...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-026-10065-7 Full text

Orbitofrontal PV interneurons modulate social interaction via default mode network dynamics.

Communications Biology April 24, 2026 Elmira Khatamsaz, Tudor M. Ionescu, Katja Keppler et al.

Social interactions are critical for mental health and are frequently disrupted in neuropsychiatric disorders. Clinical data suggest a link between dysfunction of the default mode network (DMN) and social impairment. To advance our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying social dysfunction, we back-translate these clinical findings into a preclinical setup, demonstrating that...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-026-10060-y Full text Default mode network Prefrontal cortex Nerve net Interneurons +5

Psilocybin shapes the slow, global propagation of brain activity over the cortical layout of 5HT2a receptors

Communications Biology March 26, 2026 Veronica Mäki-marttunen 1 citation

Uncovering the neural basis of psychedelics’ potent effects on brain activity and conscious experience has great potential for understanding their therapeutic effects. Numerous studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) uncovered a strong effect of psychedelics on global properties of fMRI signal, but how they map to underlying neural phenomena remains to be further explored. In...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-026-09912-4 Full text Psilocybin 5-ht2a receptor Serotonin Neural activity +4

Calcium activation mechanism of a noncanonical aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase from psilocybin mushroom Psilocybe cubensis

Communications Biology February 26, 2026 Tianjie Li, Erin. E. Reynolds, Ziqi Wang et al.

PcncAAAD is a noncanonical fungal aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AAAD) featuring a unique appendage C-terminal domain (CTD) and two metal-binding sites. Unlike its mammalian and plant counterparts, PcncAAAD is activated by calcium, although the exact activation mechanism remains unclear. Here, we establish an in silico RMSD-based evaluation model through molecular dynamics simulations,...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-026-09756-y Full text Biochemistry Active site In silico In vitro +8

Vigilance state dissociation induced by 5-MeO-DMT in mice.

Communications Biology January 5, 2026 Benjamin J. B. Bréant, José Prius-Mengual, Alexander Andrews et al. 1 citation

Psychedelics lead to profound changes in subjective experience and behaviour, which are typically conceptualised in psychological terms rather than corresponding to an altered brain state or a distinct state of vigilance. Here, we performed chronic electrophysiological recordings from the neocortex concomitant with pupillometry in freely moving adult male mice following an injection of a...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-09412-x Full text

Differential engagement of thalamic nuclei orchestrates consciousness states across anesthesia, sleep, and disorders of consciousness.

Communications Biology December 18, 2025 Fa Lu, Juan Wang, Xuewei Qin et al.

Consciousness alterations occur across various states, encompassing changes in both arousal and awareness. The contributions of thalamic nuclei of consciousness remain incompletely understood. We analyzed fMRI data across general anesthesia (propofol N = 12, sevoflurane N = 12), disorders of consciousness (DoC) (minimally conscious state N = 9, unresponsive wakefulness syndrome N = 9), and...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-09205-2 Full text

Neural and molecular changes during a mind-body reconceptualization, meditation, and open label placebo healing intervention

Communications Biology November 6, 2025 Alex Jinich-Diamant, Sierra Simpson, Juan Pablo Zuniga-Hertz et al. 4 citations

Abstract Mind-body interventions offer promising avenues for improving physical and mental health, yet the comprehensive biological effects of increasingly popular mind-body retreat interventions remain poorly understood. The neural and molecular effects of a 7-day retreat intervention combining meditation, reconceptualization, and open-label placebo healing rituals are investigated in an...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-09088-3 Full text Meditation Default mode network Neuroplasticity Neurite +11

Cortical connectivity, local dynamics and stability correlates of global conscious states.

Communications Biology September 30, 2025 Yun Zhao, Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Mario Boley et al.

Waking levels of human consciousness are known to be supported by the integrity of complex structures and processes in the brain, yet how they are exactly regulated by neurobiological mechanisms remains uncertain. Here a space-time-resolved inference-based framework is applied to estimate the neurophysiological variables of a whole-cortex model and analyze the neural mechanism correlates of...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-08782-6 Full text

Pathfinding: a neurodynamical account of intuition.

Communications Biology August 13, 2025 Steven Kotler, Michael Mannino, Karl Friston et al. 2 citations

We examine the neurobiology of intuition, a term often inconsistently defined in scientific literature. While researchers generally agree that intuition represents "an experienced-based process resulting in a spontaneous tendency toward a hunch or hypothesis," we establish a firmer neurobiological foundation by framing intuition evolutionarily as a pathfinding mechanism emerging from the...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-08612-9 Full text

The neuroreceptors and transporters underlying spontaneous brain activity.

Communications Biology July 30, 2025 Johan Nakuci, Kanika Bansal 1 citation

Determining the neuromodulators driving brain activity is critical for understanding cognition and neuropathology. Neuromodulators act through neuroreceptors in a coordinated manner, yet their interconnected dynamics are often overlooked. We show that a neuroreceptor-based modeling framework using cortical density maps of 19 neuroreceptors and transporters from Positron Emission Tomography...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-08492-z Full text Neuroscience: brain function Brain activity Brain research Neurobiology +27

Visuoaffective day residue in hypnagogia involves sequential bihemispheric interactions between cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar structures.

Communications Biology July 4, 2025 George Vagner Souza, Natália Bezerra Mota, Allan Kardec Barros et al.

The intricate interplay between visual perception and emotion determines how waking experience influences mentation through a 'day residue' at once conspicuous yet hard to predict. Here we set out to map the neural sources associated with the visuo-affective processing of the 'day residue' during hypnagogic sleep. To this end, we assessed 28 healthy participants on a combined nap protocol with...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-08429-6 Full text Cerebellum Humans Electroencephalography Emotions +5

Network control energy reductions under DMT relate to serotonin receptors, signal diversity, and subjective experience.

Communications Biology April 18, 2025 S Parker Singleton, Christopher Timmermann, Andrea I. Luppi et al. 17 citations

Psychedelics offer a profound window into the human brain through their robust effects on perception, subjective experience, and brain activity patterns. The serotonergic psychedelic N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) induces a profoundly immersive altered state of consciousness lasting under 20 min, allowing the entire experience to be captured during a single functional magnetic resonance imaging...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-08078-9 Full text DMT Psychedelics Consciousness Brain chemistry

Transient destabilization of whole brain dynamics induced by N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT).

Communications Biology March 11, 2025 Juan Ignacio Piccinini, Yonatan Sanz Perl, Carla Pallavicini et al. 6 citations

The transition towards the brain state induced by psychedelic drugs is frequently neglected in favor of a static description of their acute effects. We use a time-dependent whole-brain model to reproduce large-scale brain dynamics measured with fMRI from 15 volunteers under 20 mg intravenous N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a short-acting psychedelic. To capture its transient effects, we...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-07576-0 Full text DMT Brain chemistry Consciousness research Psychedelics

Aligning consciousness science and U.S. funding agency priorities.

Communications Biology October 13, 2024 Nora A Bradford, Angela Shen, Brian Odegaard et al. 1 citation

We recently completed the Fund Consciousness Science! Project: a workshop and subawards program aimed to align United States federal funding mechanisms and consciousness research. Here we describe the project’s motivation, execution, and outcomes to motivate similar efforts both locally and globally.

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-07011-w Full text

Dynamical structure-function correlations provide robust and generalizable signatures of consciousness in humans

Communications Biology September 30, 2024 Pablo Castro, Andrea I. Luppi, Enzo Tagliazucchi et al. 21 citations

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging evolves through a repertoire of functional connectivity patterns which might reflect ongoing cognition, as well as the contents of conscious awareness. We investigated whether the dynamic exploration of these states can provide robust and generalizable markers for the state of consciousness in human participants, across loss of consciousness...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06858-3 Default mode network Unconsciousness Dynamic functional connectivity Cognition +7

Whole brain modelling for simulating pharmacological interventions on patients with disorders of consciousness.

Communications Biology September 19, 2024 Iván Mindlin, Rubén Herzog, Laouen Belloli et al. 18 citations

Disorders of consciousness (DoC) represent a challenging and complex group of neurological conditions characterised by profound disturbances in consciousness. The current range of treatments for DoC is limited. This has sparked growing interest in developing new treatments, including the use of psychedelic drugs. Nevertheless, clinical investigations and the mechanisms behind them are...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06852-9 Full text

Critical dynamics in spontaneous EEG predict anesthetic-induced loss of consciousness and perturbational complexity.

Communications Biology August 5, 2024 Charlotte Maschke, Jordan O'Byrne, Michele Angelo Colombo et al. 50 citations

Consciousness has been proposed to be supported by electrophysiological patterns poised at criticality, a dynamical regime which exhibits adaptive computational properties, maximally complex patterns and divergent sensitivity to perturbation. Here, we investigate dynamical properties of the resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) of healthy subjects undergoing general anesthesia with propofol,...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06613-8 Full text Consciousness Brain-states Anesthesia Critical-systems

Mediodorsal thalamus and ventral pallidum contribute to subcortical regulation of the default mode network

Communications Biology July 23, 2024 Yilei Zhao, Tobias Kirschenhofer, Michael Harvey et al.

Humans and other animals readily transition from externally to internally focused attention, and these transitions are accompanied by activation of the default mode network (DMN). The DMN was considered a cortical network, yet recent evidence suggests subcortical structures are also involved. We investigated the role of ventral pallidum (VP) and mediodorsal thalamus (MD) in DMN regulation in...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06531-9 Full text

Psychedelic concentrations of nitrous oxide reduce functional differentiation in frontoparietal and somatomotor cortical networks.

Communications Biology December 19, 2023 Rui Dai, Zirui Huang, Tony E. Larkin et al. 7 citations

Despite the longstanding use of nitrous oxide and descriptions of its psychological effects more than a century ago, there is a paucity of neurobiological investigation of associated psychedelic experiences. We measure the brain's functional geometry (through analysis of cortical gradients) and temporal dynamics (through analysis of co-activation patterns) using human resting-state functional...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05678-1 Full text Non-ordinary states Nitrous oxide N2o Laughing gas +10

5-HT2AR and NMDAR psychedelics induce similar hyper-synchronous states in the rat cognitive-limbic cortex-basal ganglia system.

Communications Biology July 26, 2023 Ivani Brys, Sebastian A Barrientos, Jon Ezra Ward et al. 33 citations

The profound changes in perception and cognition induced by psychedelic drugs are thought to act on several levels, including increased glutamatergic activity, altered functional connectivity and an aberrant increase in high-frequency oscillations. To bridge these different levels of observation, we have here performed large-scale multi-structure recordings in freely behaving rats treated with...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05093-6 Full text Psychedelics Brain waves Consciousness Pharmacology

Fronto-parietal networks shape human conscious report through attention gain and reorienting

Communications Biology July 15, 2023 Jianghao Liu, Dimitri J. Bayle, Alfredo Spagna et al. 39 citations

How do attention and consciousness interact in the human brain? Rival theories of consciousness disagree on the role of fronto-parietal attentional networks in conscious perception. We recorded neural activity from 727 intracerebral contacts in 13 epileptic patients, while they detected near-threshold targets preceded by attentional cues. Clustering revealed three neural patterns: first,...

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05108-2 Full text

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