Psilocybin’s acute and persistent brain effects: a precision imaging drug trial
Subha Subramanian, Travis Rick Renau, Demetrius Perry, Karin Flavin, Christine Horan, Ravi V. Chacko, Timothy O. Laumann, Julia Schweiger, Nicholas V. Metcalf, Eric J Lenze, Abraham Z. Snyder, Nico U.f. Dosenbach, Ginger E. Nicol, Joshua S. Siegel
Scientific Data June 5, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41597-025-05189-0 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized cross-over study Open-label Longitudinal Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 7 |
| Population | Healthy volunteers |
| Interventions | Psilocybin Methylphenidate |
| Duration | Imaging beginning 60-90 minutes after drug exposure, longitudinal imaging for up to two weeks after drug exposure |
| Topics | Psilocybin |
| Keywords | Hallucinogen Neuroimaging Drug trial Pharmacology Clinical trial |
| Citations | 4 |
| Key points | Precision functional mapping can characterize acute and persistent effects of psilocybin and methylphenidate on brain networks in individual participants. |
Abstract
Psilocybin (PSIL) is a psychedelic drug and a promising experimental therapeutic for many psychiatric conditions. Precision functional mapping (PFM) combines densely repeated resting state fMRI sampling and individual-specific network mapping to improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and effect size in brain imaging research. We present a randomized cross-over study in which PFM was used to characterize acute and persistent effects of psilocybin or methylphenidate (MTP) on brain networks. Seven healthy volunteers (mean age 34.1 years, SD = 9.8; n = 3 females, n = 6 Caucasians) underwent (1) extensive baseline imaging, (2) imaging beginning 60-90 minutes after drug exposure, and (3) longitudinal imaging for up to two weeks after drug exposure. Four individuals also participated in an open-label PSIL replication protocol over 6 months later. This dataset includes resting state (using advanced high-resolution multi-echo fMRI), task fMRI, structural, and diffusion basis spectral imaging as well as assessments of subjective experience. We are releasing this unique dataset as a resource for neuroscientists to study the acute and persistent effects of PSIL and MTP on brain networks.