Biological psychiatry global open science
March 1, 2026
Noam Goldway, Taly Markovits, Naomi Fine et al.
1 citation
Dissociation—feeling detached from one's body, environment, or self—often accompanies posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but its neural basis is poorly understood. Using network control theory on resting-state functional MRI data, researchers examined brain dynamics during dissociative states in healthy volunteers given ketamine (n=30) and in PTSD patients (n=78) before and after treatment. Ketamine induced brain dynamics similar to those in untreated PTSD patients: increased dominance of the default mode network (DMN) meta-state and decreased dominance of the somatomotor network (SOM) meta-state. After treatment, reduced DMN meta-state dominance correlated with fewer dissociative symptoms. Treated patients also showed more organized, less entropic brain states, though ketamine did not significantly alter entropy indices. Dissociative states, whether drug-induced or clinical, involve increased DMN and reduced SOM dominance.
Noam Goldway, Taly Markovits, Naomi Fine et al.
preprint
Dissociation—feeling detached from one's body, surroundings, or self—is common in PTSD but its neural basis is poorly understood. Using network control theory, researchers examined brain dynamics during dissociative states in two contexts: ketamine-induced dissociation in 30 healthy volunteers and therapeutic interventions in 78 PTSD patients. Ketamine produced brain dynamics similar to those seen in PTSD patients before treatment, with increased dominance of a default mode network meta-state and decreased dominance of a somatomotor meta-state. Ketamine did not significantly alter the brain's energetic landscape, but transition energies increased after PTSD treatment, suggesting more organized, less entropic brain dynamics.
Neuropsychopharmacology
July 20, 2026
Noam Goldway, Itamar Jalon, Yara Agbaria et al.
Ketamine produces both pain relief and dissociation, but it remains unclear whether the two are linked. In a placebo-controlled fMRI study with 37 healthy volunteers, intravenous ketamine reduced pain and induced dissociation, yet the two effects showed distinct brain signatures. Pain was associated with activity in regions like the anterior insula and a pain-predictive brain pattern, while dissociation was linked to reduced connectivity in the default mode network. These neural markers did not correlate with each other, suggesting that ketamine's analgesic and dissociative effects arise through separate mechanisms.
Neurology
September 5, 2018
L. Weizman, L. Dayan, S. Brill et al.
THC reduces chronic neuropathic pain by decreasing functional connectivity between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the sensorimotor cortex, as well as reducing network connectivity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with 15 patients, THC significantly lowered pain compared to placebo. The degree of connectivity reduction predicted individual pain relief, suggesting that baseline brain connectivity may serve as a biomarker for THC analgesic response. The effect appears mediated by a functional disconnection between cognitive-emotional regulatory regions and somatosensory areas.