ISSN 1476-4687
38 papers in the library · 4,218 citations · publishing 1964-2026
Nature October 28, 2026
Credit: Cole Burston/AFP/GettyMore than one billion people globally live with a mental-health condition. Collectively, these disorders are now the world’s leading cause of disability. Depression and anxiety alone cost the global economy an estimated US$1 trillion every year. The grand plan to transform psychiatry — by personalizing mental-health careConventional pharmacological approaches to...
Nature October 20, 2026 Flora Graham
The drug improved the ability to focus — but only in women. Plus, US climate scientists are facing a deluge of public-records requests and why a sleep-disorder drug might be the next big blockbuster.
Nature July 28, 2026
Consciousness research is having an AI moment. Will the hype help the field?
Nature June 1, 2026 Kalman A Katlowitz, Eric R Cole, Elizabeth A Mickiewicz et al.
Consciousness is a fundamental component of cognition1, but the degree to which higher-order pattern recognition relies on it remains disputed2,3. Here we demonstrate the persistence of oddball discrimination, semantic processing and online prediction in individuals under general-anaesthesia-induced loss of consciousness4,5. Using high-density Neuropixels microelectrodes6 to record both...
Nature January 28, 2026 Zheng Xu, Hongshuang Wang, Jingjing Yu et al. 5 citations
Psychedelics are undergoing a renaissance as potential therapy for psychiatric disorders, with more than 200 clinical trials being studied across several countries1-3. However, the precise mechanisms by which these drugs bring about benefits and the potential clinical risks are not yet fully understood. The serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR) was reported to be a Gq-coupled receptor and the primary...
Nature November 5, 2025 Chenyu Yue, Nan Wang, Haojiang Zhai et al. 22 citations
Ketamine and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) achieve rapid remission in treatment-resistant depression. However, their mechanisms of action—the understanding of which is essential for refining therapeutic precision—remain unclear1, 2–3. Here, using mouse models, we identify adenosine signalling as a central pathway that underlies the antidepressant effects of these interventions. Results from...
Nature June 1, 2025 Oscar Ferrante, Urszula Gorska-Klimowska, Simon Henin et al. 94 citations
Different theories explain how subjective experience arises from brain activity1,2. These theories have independently accrued evidence, but have not been directly compared3. Here we present an open science adversarial collaboration directly juxtaposing integrated information theory (IIT)4,5 and global neuronal workspace theory (GNWT)6-10 via a theory-neutral consortium11-13. The theory...
Nature June 1, 2025 Ling-Xiao Shao, Clara Liao, Pasha A. Davoudian et al. 75 citations
Psilocybin is a serotonergic psychedelic with therapeutic potential for treating mental illnesses1-4. At the cellular level, psychedelics induce structural neural plasticity5,6, exemplified by the drug-evoked growth and remodelling of dendritic spines in cortical pyramidal cells7-9. A key question is how these cellular modifications map onto cell-type-specific circuits to produce the...
Nature April 23, 2025 Elizabeth N. Chung, Jinsu Lee, C. Polonio et al.
Neuroimmune interactions—signals transmitted between immune and brain cells—regulate many aspects of tissue physiology1, including responses to psychological stress2, 3, 4–5, which can predispose individuals to develop neuropsychiatric diseases6, 7, 8–9. Still, the interactions between haematopoietic and brain-resident cells that influence complex behaviours are poorly understood. Here, we use...
Nature April 2, 2025
Psilocybin, a classic psychedelic, has therapeutic potential for psychiatric disorders. A specific brain circuit and receptor have now been found to be required for psilocybin’s long-term effects on neural plasticity and depression-related behaviour. The psychedelic psilocybin’s beneficial behavioural action depends on the activation of pyramidal-tract neurons in the frontal cortex.
Nature August 1, 2024 Joshua S. Siegel, Subha Subramanian, Demetrius Perry et al. 241 citations
A single dose of psilocybin, a psychedelic that acutely causes distortions of space-time perception and ego dissolution, produces rapid and persistent therapeutic effects in human clinical trials1-4. In animal models, psilocybin induces neuroplasticity in cortex and hippocampus5-8. It remains unclear how human brain network changes relate to subjective and lasting effects of psychedelics. Here...
Nature June 1, 2024 Audrey L Warren, David Lankri, Michael J. Cunningham et al. 74 citations
Psychedelic substances such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin show potential for the treatment of various neuropsychiatric disorders1-3. These compounds are thought to mediate their hallucinogenic and therapeutic effects through the serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)) receptor 5-HT2A (ref. 4). However, 5-HT1A also plays a part in the behavioural effects of tryptamine...
Nature May 8, 2024
A hallucinogenic compound secreted by toads has served as a springboard for research into the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. The findings suggest that these compounds exert antidepressant effects in part by binding an under-appreciated target in the brain. Research into a hallucinogenic compound secreted by a toad has cast light on the therapeutic effects of psychedelics.
Nature October 18, 2023 Shuangshuang Ma, Min Chen, Yihao Jiang et al. 202 citations
The discrepancy between the short half-life of ketamine and its long-lasting effects is due to ketamine being trapped in NMDA receptors, and its release depends on neural activity in the lateral habenula. Ketamine, an N -methyl- d -aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist^ 1 , has revolutionized the treatment of depression because of its potent, rapid and sustained antidepressant effects^ 2 – 4 ....
Nature July 13, 2023 Rich Haridy 55 citations
Decision to make the previously illicit drugs available is dogged by suggestions that it was rushed. Decision to make the previously illicit drugs available is dogged by suggestions that it was rushed.
Nature June 14, 2023 Romain Nardou, Young Jun Song, Noelle Wright et al. 335 citations
Abstract Psychedelics are a broad class of drugs defined by their ability to induce an altered state of consciousness 1,2 . These drugs have been used for millennia in both spiritual and medicinal contexts, and a number of recent clinical successes have spurred a renewed interest in developing psychedelic therapies 3–9 . Nevertheless, a unifying mechanism that can account for these shared...
Nature May 1, 2023 Jianming Han, Jingying Zhang, Antonina L. Nazarova et al. 79 citations
The κ-opioid receptor (KOR) represents a highly desirable therapeutic target for treating not only pain but also addiction and affective disorders1. However, the development of KOR analgesics has been hindered by the associated hallucinogenic side effects2. The initiation of KOR signalling requires the Gi/o-family proteins including the conventional (Gi1, Gi2, Gi3, GoA and GoB) and...
Nature September 29, 2022 Lauren Gravitz 3 citations
Some researchers are finding clues that MDMA might be able to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. But the science has yet to catch up with the optimism. Some researchers are finding clues that MDMA might be able to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. But the science has yet to catch up with the optimism.
Nature September 28, 2022 Anat Levit Kaplan, Danielle N. Confair, Kuglae Kim et al.
There is considerable interest in screening ultralarge chemical libraries for ligand discovery, both empirically and computationally 1 – 4 . Efforts have focused on readily synthesizable molecules, inevitably leaving many chemotypes unexplored. Here we investigate structure-based docking of a bespoke virtual library of tetrahydropyridines—a scaffold that is poorly sampled by a general...
Nature August 2022 Linda D. Simmler, Yue Li, Lotfi C Hadjas et al.
Ketamine is used clinically as an anaesthetic and a fast-acting antidepressant, and recreationally for its dissociative properties, raising concerns of addiction as a possible side effect. Addictive drugs such as cocaine increase the levels of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. This facilitates synaptic plasticity in the mesolimbic system, which causes behavioural adaptations and eventually...
Nature 2021 Lindsay P. Cameron, Robert J Tombari, Ju Lu et al. 468 citations
The psychedelic alkaloid ibogaine has anti-addictive properties in both humans and animals1. Unlike most medications for the treatment of substance use disorders, anecdotal reports suggest that ibogaine has the potential to treat addiction to various substances, including opiates, alcohol and psychostimulants. The effects of ibogaine-like those of other psychedelic compounds-are long-lasting2,...
Nature September 16, 2020 Sam S Vesuna, Isaac V Kauvar, Ethan B Richman et al. 291 citations
Advanced imaging methods now allow cell-type-specific recording of neural activity across the mammalian brain, potentially enabling the exploration of how brain-wide dynamical patterns give rise to complex behavioural states1–12. Dissociation is an altered behavioural state in which the integrity of experience is disrupted, resulting in reproducible cognitive phenomena including the...
Nature July 2020 Daniel Jimenez-Blasco, Arnau Busquets-García, Etienne Hebert-Chatelain et al.
Astrocytes take up glucose from the bloodstream to provide energy to the brain, thereby allowing neuronal activity and behavioural responses1-5. By contrast, astrocytes are under neuronal control through specific neurotransmitter receptors5-7. However, whether the activation of astroglial receptors can directly regulate cellular glucose metabolism to eventually modulate behavioural responses is...
Nature May 23, 2019 Alison Abbott 1 citation
A chronicle tracing the drug’s ancient roots and role in research grips Alison Abbott. A chronicle tracing the drug’s ancient roots and role in research grips Alison Abbott.
Nature May 1, 2019 Jonathan A. Coleman, Dongxue Yang, Zhiyu Zhao et al. 301 citations
The serotonin transporter (SERT) regulates neurotransmitter homeostasis through the sodium- and chloride-dependent recycling of serotonin into presynaptic neurons1-3. Major depression and anxiety disorders are treated using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors-small molecules that competitively block substrate binding and thereby prolong neurotransmitter action2,4. The dopamine and...