A lasting impact of serotonergic psychedelics on visual processing and behavior
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) July 6, 2024 Chloe L. West, Georgia Bastos, Annabel Duran et al. 2 citations preprint
Serotonergic psychedelics like psilocybin may treat psychiatric disorders by loosening ingrained beliefs, shifting brain processing from top-down to bottom-up. People who recently used 5-HT2A-agonist psychedelics showed slower eye movements and stronger sensory prediction errors during visual tasks. Those using 5-MeO-DMT, which targets 5-HT1A receptors, showed altered eye movements but unchanged deviance detection. In mice, the 5-HT2A-agonist DOI altered deviance detection in primary visual cortex and weakened top-down feedback from higher cortical area ACa. These effects persisted beyond the acute drug period, supporting predictive processing theories of psychedelic action.