Skip to content

Amygdala response to emotional faces following acute administration of psilocybin in healthy individuals

Sophia Armand, Kristian Larsen, Martin K Madsen, Brice Ozenne, Katrin H. Preller, Gitte M. Knudsen, Dea S Stenbæk, Patrick M. Fisher

Neuroscience Applied December 30, 2023 DOI: 10.1016/j.nsa.2023.103934 (opens in new tab)

Relevant Not relevant

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Within-subjects experimental study with fMRI Peer reviewed
Sample size 26
Population Healthy individuals
Intervention Psilocybin
Topics Psilocybin
Keywords Psilocybin psychedelics Hallucinogens Emotional processing emotion Emotional regulation Affective processing Emotional response Feelings Mood Neuroscience brain activity Neurobiology Brain function Neural activity Brain scans Amygdala activity
Citations 7
Key findings Psilocybin significantly reduced amygdala reactivity to angry faces, and subjective drug intensity was negatively associated with amygdala reactivity to fearful faces.

Abstract

The serotonergic psychedelic psilocybin acutely induces changes in emotional states. However, it remains unresolved whether psilocybin acutely modulates amygdala reactivity to emotions, a brain region critically involved in emotion processing. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined in 26 healthy individuals whether amygdala responses to angry, fearful and neutral faces differ between acute exposure to psilocybin and at baseline. We also evaluated whether plasma psilocin levels (PPL) and subjective drug intensity (SDI) during psilocybin are related to amygdala responses to the emotional faces. We found that amygdala response to angry faces was significantly reduced during exposure to psilocybin as compared to baseline (mean difference = -0.54, PFWER = 0.03), whereas no significant changes in amygdala responses to fearful or neutral faces were observed. We further found that the amygdala response to fearful faces was significantly negatively associated with SDI (slope = -0.13, PFWER = 0.04), whereas no significant association with PPL was observed. Our findings indicate that psilocybin attenuates amygdala reactivity to angry faces and that a more intense subjective psilocybin response (SDI) is associated with attenuated amygdala reactivity to fearful faces, in accordance with previously reported results. Future studies should investigate whether exposure to psilocybin acutely changes emotion processing in individuals with depression and whether such changes are related to therapeutic outcomes.

Comparable studies

Other experimental studies on psilocybin, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Psilocybin induces schizophrenia-like psychosis in humans via a serotonin-2 agonist action Healthy human volunteers 1998 Experimental study
Validation of the revised Mystical Experience Questionnaire in experimental sessions with psilocybin Participants in controlled laboratory experiments receiving a moderate to high oral... 2015 Validation study using pooled data from five laboratory experiments n = 184
Broadband Cortical Desynchronization Underlies the Human Psychedelic State Healthy human participants 2013 Experimental study
Long-term follow-up of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for psychiatric and existential distress in patients with life-threatening cancer Participants with cancer-related psychiatric distress who completed a parent randomized... 2020 Long-term within-subjects follow-up analysis n = 15
Enzymatic Synthesis of Psilocybin 2017 Laboratory study

Citations in the library

Cited by 7

and 2 more in the library

Cites 33

and 28 more in the library

Related reading

Explore topics

Psilocybin Depression Serotonin