Molecular Psychiatry
May 25, 2021
Ju Lu, Michelle Tjia, Brian Mullen et al.
87 citations
A single dose of the psychedelic analog tabernanthalog (TBG) reduces anxiety and reverses stress-induced deficits in sensory processing and cognitive flexibility in mice exposed to unpredictable mild stress. TBG promotes regrowth of dendritic spines lost during stress, lowers baseline neuronal activity, and enhances whisking-related modulation in the somatosensory cortex. In a texture discrimination task, novel textures activate a greater proportion of cortical neurons than familiar ones; this differential response is diminished by stress and restored by TBG. The findings indicate TBG combats stress effects by modulating basal and stimulus-dependent neural activity in cortical networks.
Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience
October 12, 2021
Kacper Łukasiewicz, Jacob J. Baker, Yi Zuo et al.
32 citations
Psychedelics, which have been used for centuries, can dramatically alter conscious experience. Recent research indicates that certain psychedelics promote neural plasticity by stimulating neurite growth and synapse formation. This review concentrates on classical serotonergic psychedelics and their role in neural plasticity, discussing how this mechanism may underlie their therapeutic potential.
Neuropharmacology
March 7, 2025
Stefan Modzelewski, Anna Stankiewicz, Napoleon Waszkiewicz et al.
5 citations
A review of psychedelic research finds that studies vary widely in how they report side effects and often follow participants for only a short time. The authors call for future work to describe side effects more clearly and systematically. This limitation makes it difficult to fully understand the risks associated with substances like psilocybin and LSD.
Frontiers in Psychiatry
July 15, 2026
Rafał Marecki, Wiktoria Zaniewska, Adam Hamed et al.
Classic psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD, DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, mescaline, and DOI work primarily by activating 5-HT2A receptors, causing widespread brain and behavior changes relevant to psychiatric research. Evidence from rodent studies shows that these effects differ by sex across pharmacokinetics, physiology, neuroplasticity, behavior, and disease models. Females often show stronger or qualitatively distinct behavioral responses, including head twitch, locomotor activity, prepulse inhibition, stress reactivity, and social behavior, with ovarian cycle phase further modulating some effects. Disease model studies also find sex-dependent outcomes, such as psilocybin's effects on alcohol consumption and DMT microdosing on mood and neuroplasticity. The review concludes that sex is a critical biological variable shaping psychedelic effects in rodents, and integrating sex-specific analyses is essential for improving translational validity and guiding clinical applications.