Sci Rep
October 13, 2017
Robin L Carhart-Harris, Leor Roseman, Mark Bolstridge et al.
590 citations
In patients with treatment-resistant depression, a single dose of psilocybin combined with psychological support reduced depressive symptoms and altered brain activity and connectivity. Functional MRI scans before and after treatment showed decreased blood flow in the temporal cortex, including the amygdala, and increased resting-state functional connectivity within the default-mode network. Reduced amygdala blood flow correlated with fewer depressive symptoms. Changes in connectivity between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and inferior lateral parietal cortex, as well as between the parahippocampus and prefrontal cortex, predicted treatment response at five weeks. These brain changes differ from the drug's acute effects and suggest a 'reset' of neural circuits.
Sci Rep
November 19, 2019
Christopher Timmermann, Leor Roseman, Michael Schartner et al.
325 citations
Intravenous DMT, a fast-acting psychedelic, markedly reduces alpha and beta brain wave power and increases spontaneous signal diversity in the human brain, as measured by EEG. The emergence of delta and theta oscillatory activity correlates with the peak of the subjective experience, especially its eyes-closed visual component. Relationships between changes in subjective experience and brain activity were observed across time, linking specific brain changes to specific aspects of the experience.
Sci Rep
December 15, 2017
Selen Atasoy, Leor Roseman, Mendel Kaelen et al.
225 citations
LSD alters the energy and power of individual harmonic brain states in a frequency-selective manner, leading to an expansion of the repertoire of active brain states. This expansion is non-random, suggesting a general re-organization of brain dynamics. The frequency distribution of active brain states under LSD closely follows power-laws, indicating a re-organization of dynamics at the edge of criticality. These findings provide insight into how LSD affects brain function and open new methods for understanding complex brain dynamics in health and disease.
Sci Rep
October 24, 2019
Lukasz Smigielski, Michael Kometer, Milan Scheidegger et al.
174 citations
In a mindfulness group retreat setting, the acute and sustained effects of psilocybin were characterized and predicted. The study examined how individuals responded to the psychedelic during and after the retreat, identifying factors that influenced the strength and duration of the experience. Results showed that certain psychological and contextual variables predicted more profound acute responses, which in turn were associated with greater long-term improvements in well-being. The findings suggest that psilocybin's effects in a group mindfulness context are shaped by individual differences and the retreat environment, offering insights into optimizing therapeutic use.
Sci Rep
March 23, 2021
Brandon Weiss, Joshua D. Miller, Nathan T. Carter et al.
80 citations
A study of 256 participants from three ayahuasca healing centers in South and Central America examined changes in the Five-Factor personality traits after ceremonial use of the psychedelic brew. The largest change was a large reduction in Neuroticism, observed in both self-reports and informant reports, with effect sizes ranging from −0.62 to −1.00 across timepoints. Baseline personality, acute experiences during the ceremony, and purging experiences moderated the degree of personality change. The findings suggest that ceremonial ayahuasca use is associated with substantial decreases in emotional instability.
Sci Rep
May 25, 2021
Patrick Vizeli, Isabelle Straumann, Friederike Holze et al.
54 citations
Genetic variation in the CYP2D6 gene significantly affects how the body processes LSD and how strongly people experience its subjective effects. In 81 healthy volunteers from four placebo-controlled trials, individuals with no functional CYP2D6 (poor metabolizers) had about 75% higher blood concentrations of LSD and its main metabolite, longer drug half-lives, and greater alterations of mind with longer subjective effect durations compared to those with functional CYP2D6. Other CYP genes (CYP1A2, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2B6) showed no influence. These results suggest that pharmacogenetic testing for CYP2D6 may be relevant before LSD-assisted psychotherapy.
Sci Rep
July 26, 2023
Balázs Szigeti, David Nutt, Robin Carhart-Harris et al.
33 citations
Blinding in medical trials aims to evenly distribute expectancy effects between treatment groups, but it often fails. Using computational modeling, this work shows that weak blinding combined with positive treatment expectancy creates an 'activated expectancy bias' (AEB), which can inflate treatment effect estimates and produce false positive results. The authors introduce the Correct Guess Rate Curve (CGRC) to estimate outcomes of a perfectly blinded trial from imperfectly blinded data. Re-analyzing a self-blinding psychedelic microdose trial dataset, they find that observed placebo-microdose differences are susceptible to AEB and may be false positives, suggesting microdosing acts as an active placebo. The findings highlight the distinction between trials with a placebo control group and genuinely placebo-controlled trials.
Sci Rep
August 17, 2023
Anne Buot, Cecile Pallares, Alina Oganesyan et al.
28 citations
Classic psychedelics were the only substances reported to reduce obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms in a retrospective online survey of 174 people who used psychoactive drugs. Symptom reduction was linked to the intensity of acute effects, which correlated with dose. Therapeutic effects lasted from weeks to months, but no factor predicted their persistence. Frequency of subsequent use was predicted by the magnitude and persistence of the effect, though overall use was limited. The findings support the possibility that classic psychedelics can reduce OCD symptoms, but careful evaluation of effect persistence is still needed.
Sci Rep
October 16, 2024
Andreas Krabbe, Pilleriin Sikka, Jussi Jylkkä
9 citations
Psychological flexibility—the ability to adapt thoughts and behaviors to changing circumstances—may explain why psychedelic experiences can improve mental well-being. In a cross-sectional internet survey of 629 people who had used classical psychedelics, network analysis showed that the depth of psychological insight during a single psychedelic experience, rather than how often someone had used psychedelics, was linked to the psychological flexibility component of Acceptance. Mediation analyses indicated that psychological flexibility mediated the relationship between past psychedelic use and both well-being and ill-being. The findings suggest that the quality of the psychedelic experience, especially fostering acceptance, is more important than frequency of use for long-term mental health benefits.
Sci Rep
August 12, 2024
Marija Franka Žuljević, Darko Hren, Dawid Storman et al.
9 citations
European psychiatrists generally hold positive attitudes toward psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy but remain concerned about potential risks. In a survey of 419 psychiatrists from 33 countries, one-third reported past personal use of psychedelics. The highest-rated attitude sub-scale was Openness to Psychedelics, while Risk Assessment was rated lowest. Younger, male, spiritually identified psychiatrists who could better recognize psychedelic substances and had personal experience with them showed more favorable attitudes. Professional experience with psychedelic therapy or research also predicted positive attitudes, but other professional variables did not. The findings suggest that impartiality on the topic is difficult.
Sci Rep
October 16, 2024
Tamas Madl
5 citations
Meditation may help people see thoughts and experiences less as solid realities—a process called dereification—and this mental shift can be tracked in the brain using EEG. By creating personalized models of brain states from electrical activity, researchers identified distinct neural patterns that correspond to moments of dereification during meditation. These patterns suggest that the brain moves through different electrophysiological states as a person becomes less identified with their thoughts. The findings indicate that EEG can capture subtle, moment-to-moment changes in how the mind relates to experience, offering a way to measure a core aspect of mindfulness that was previously difficult to study objectively.
Sci Rep
November 6, 2025
Anna O. Ermakova, Fiona Dunbar, Mathieu Seynaeve et al.
3 citations
5-MeO-DMT, a short-acting psychedelic, produces a distinctive subjective experience with rapid onset, peaking at 8–15 minutes and returning to baseline within 45–60 minutes, as shown by interviews with 32 psychedelic-naïve healthy participants in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Effects intensify with dose and are generally well tolerated. Unlike other psychedelics, 5-MeO-DMT elicits strong emotional or bodily experiences with relatively few visual effects, and can trigger therapeutically relevant content such as emotional breakthroughs and personal insights.
Sci Rep
November 27, 2024
Sacha Haudry, Anne-Laure Turpin, Brigitte Landeau et al.
3 citations
Expert meditators show preserved brain structure and better psycho-affective health compared to meditation-naive older adults, suggesting that long-term meditation practice may protect against age-related decline. The study examined older expert meditators and older meditation-naive participants, finding that the expert group had greater brain preservation and more favorable psycho-affective profiles. These results indicate that meditation could be a protective factor for brain and mental health in aging.
Sci Rep
September 15, 2022
Rubén Herzog, Pedro A. M. Mediano, Fernando E. Rosas et al.
3 citations
A scientific paper was retracted because a typo in the script used to calculate differential entropy made the reported entropy estimations invalid. The corrected calculations no longer show the expected increase in brain signal diversity or complexity that the original analysis had claimed.
Sci Rep
July 9, 2025
Stephanie Müller, Federico Cavanna, Laura De la Fuente et al.
2 citations
High doses of psilocybin mushrooms caused people to look more locally at paintings, with less spread in where their eyes fixated, compared with low doses. Psilocybin increased subjective emotional intensity and feelings of flow but did not change how people rated the paintings aesthetically, indicating a separation between perceptual and evaluative parts of aesthetic experience. The gaze changes may stem from altered perception of low-level visual features such as textures, shapes, and colors. The work demonstrates that eye tracking can objectively measure psychedelic effects on behavior in naturalistic settings.
Sci Rep
May 10, 2025
Jia-Hui Guo, Xiao-Na Zhou, Hu-Ye Zhou et al.
2 citations
Brief meditation training can improve shooting performance and cognitive engagement in virtual reality environments. The work suggests that even short mindfulness practice before a virtual reality marksmanship task enhances focus and accuracy, indicating that meditation may serve as a practical tool for performance enhancement in simulated settings.
Sci Rep
July 28, 2022
Joseph M. Rootman, Maggie Kiraga, Pamela Kryskow et al.
2 citations
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Sci Rep
December 17, 2025
Tareq Nafea Alharby, Muteb Alanazi, Jowaher Alanazi
1 citation
Doped C20 fullerenes show promise as highly efficient nanosorbents and nanosensors for the rapid detection of dimethyltryptamine, a psychedelic compound. The work suggests that modifying C20 fullerenes with dopants enhances their ability to adsorb and sense dimethyltryptamine molecules, potentially enabling faster and more sensitive drug detection methods. This computational or theoretical analysis indicates that doped fullerenes could serve as a new generation of materials for identifying dimethyltryptamine in forensic or medical contexts.
Sci Rep
December 16, 2025
Konsta Kallio-Mannila, Rosa Salmela, Jussi Jylkkä
1 citation
Psychedelic and meditation experiences are both known to be personally meaningful and transformative, but their similarities and differences are unclear. This study used natural language processing to compare open-ended narrative reports from 197 participants about their most meaningful experience facilitated by psychedelics (134 people) or meditation (63 people). The semantic and lexical content of the reports was highly similar, with both groups expressing positive emotions on average. However, psychedelic reports were more emotionally charged, showing higher levels of both positive and negative sentiments, while meditation reports were more neutral. This suggests the two types of experience are generally similar, with emotional intensity as a possible distinguishing factor. Methodological challenges limit conclusions, but the work offers new hypotheses for future research.
Sci Rep
November 25, 2025
Laura C. Carvalho, Jorge Encantado, Michiel van Elk et al.
Psychedelic experiences may help people adopt healthier behaviors like improved diet, more exercise, and regular meditation, according to a survey of 96 practitioners working in legal and underground settings. Practitioners reported perceived positive changes in clients' contemplative practices (61.4%), time in nature (60.1%), eating patterns (56.9%), and diet and nutrition (56%). The findings suggest that practitioners often see psychedelic experiences as linked to beneficial health behavior changes, though further research is needed to confirm these results and understand their long-term sustainability.