Medicine and Health

Psilocybin desynchronizes the human brain

J. S. Siegel, S. Subramanian, et al.

Experience the transformative power of psilocybin in this groundbreaking study conducted by a team of experts from leading institutions. Discover how a single dose can create profound brain changes, disrupt connectivity, and potentially offer therapeutic benefits, reshaping our understanding of psychedelic medicine.

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Playback language: English

Index

Abstract

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 trials. This study tracked individual-specific brain changes using longitudinal precision functional mapping in healthy adults after high-dose psilocybin and methylphenidate. Psilocybin massively disrupted functional connectivity (FC), causing brain desynchronization and dissolving network distinctions. These FC changes were strongest in the default mode network and linked to subjective psychedelic experience. A perceptual task reduced psilocybin-driven FC changes. Persistent decreases in FC between the anterior hippocampus and default mode network suggest a neuroanatomical correlate of psychedelics' therapeutic effects.

Publisher

Nature

Published On

Jul 17, 2024

Authors

Joshua S. Siegel, Subha Subramanian, Demetrius Perry, Benjamin P. Kay, Evan M. Gordon, Timothy O. Laumann, T. Rick Reneau, Nicholas V. Metcalf, Ravi V. Chacko, Caterina Gratton, Christine Horan, Samuel R. Krimmel, Joshua S. Shimony, Julie A. Schweiger, Dean F. Wong, David A. Bender, Kristen M. Scheidter, Forrest I. Whiting, Jonah A. Padawer-Curry, Russell T. Shinohara, Yong Chen, Julia Moser, Essa Yacoub, Steven M. Nelson, Luca Vizioli, Damien A. Fair, Eric J. Lenze, Robin Carhart-Harris, Charles L. Raison, Marcus E. Raichle, Abraham Z. Snyder, Ginger E. Nicol, Nico U. F. Dosenbach

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