LSD Reconfigures Cortical Dynamics Through Faster Brain Rhythms and Increased Fractal Dimension
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) January 29, 2026 Venkatesh Subramani, Timothy Nest, Annalisa Pascarella et al. 1 citation
LSD alters brain activity by increasing alpha and beta brain-wave frequencies while genuinely reducing oscillatory power, with these effects showing distinct cortical patterns. The drug also flattens the aperiodic 1/f spectral slope and increases neural signal fractality and complexity, particularly in sensory, language, emotion, and imagery-related networks, while sparing motor cortex. Machine learning identified peak-frequency shifts, aperiodic parameters, and complexity measures as key discriminators of the psychedelic state. Music did not amplify these neural signatures and showed a trend toward attenuation. These findings provide a comprehensive account of how LSD reorganizes large-scale human brain dynamics.