Time-resolved Neural and Experience Dynamics of Medium- and High-dose N,N-Dimethyltryptamine
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience December 30, 2025 Evan Lewis-Healey, Carla Pallavicini, Federico Cavanna et al. 4 citations
The psychedelic drug DMT rapidly reorganizes conscious experience and brain activity, but the link between brain dynamics and subjective effects remains unclear. In a blinded, dose-dependent study, 19 participants received 20 mg or 40 mg of DMT. The higher dose produced more intense visual hallucinations and emotional experiences. Electroencephalography data showed that alpha power and permutation entropy best tracked moment-to-moment changes in subjective experience, while Lempel-Ziv complexity—previously thought to be a strong correlate—showed the weakest association. The findings indicate that the relationship between neural complexity and psychedelic phenomenology is less straightforward than hypothesized.