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Peer Reviewed
Objective
To determine how human brain network changes relate to subjective and lasting effects of psychedelics.
Findings/Key points
Psilocybin massively disrupted functional connectivity (FC) in cortex and subcortex, acutely causing more than threefold greater change than methylphenidate. These FC changes were driven by brain desynchronization across spatial scales (areal, global), which dissolved network distinctions by reducing correlations within and anticorrelations between networks. Psilocybin-driven FC changes, which lasted weeks, were strongest in the default mode network. This brain structure is connected to the anterior hippocampus and is thought to create our sense of space, time and self (lasting weeks). Persistent reduction of hippocampal-default mode network connectivity may represent a neuroanatomical and mechanistic correlate of the proplasticity and therapeutic effects of psychedelics.
Design/methods
Individual-specific brain changes were tracked with longitudinal precision functional mapping (roughly 18 magnetic resonance imaging visits per participant). Healthy adults (n=7) were tracked before, during and for 3 weeks after high-dose psilocybin (25 mg) and methylphenidate (40 mg), and brought back for an additional psilocybin dose 6–12 months later.
