Vigilance state dissociation induced by 5-MeO DMT in mice
Research Square May 6, 2025 Benjamin Bréant, José Prius-Mengual, Alexander Andrews et al.
Psychedelics like 5-MeO-DMT induce a dissociated state of arousal in mice, combining features of waking and sleep. In freely moving adult male mice, chronic neocortical recordings and pupillometry showed that the drug triggered prominent slow oscillations in the cortex and marked pupil dilation while the animals remained awake and moving. REM sleep was initially suppressed but overcompensated in the following 48 hours. This dissociated brain state, mixing waking and sleep characteristics, may underlie psychedelic effects such as dream-like hallucinations and reopening of the critical period for plasticity.