Time-resolved neural and experience dynamics of medium- and high-dose DMT
bioRxiv Preprint Server December 19, 2024 Evan Lewis-Healey, Carla Pallavicini, Federico Cavanna et al. 1 citation preprint
A dose of the fast-acting psychedelic DMT rapidly reorganizes conscious experience and brain dynamics, but the link between neural complexity and subjective effects is weaker than previously thought. Nineteen participants received 20 mg or 40 mg of DMT in two sessions. The higher dose produced more extreme visual hallucinations and emotionally intense experiences. Contrary to earlier claims, Lempel-Ziv complexity—a measure of neural signal diversity—was the least strongly associated neural marker of the psychedelic state. The findings suggest the relationship between neural complexity and phenomenology during psychedelic experiences is less clear than originally hypothesized.