Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
July 31, 2024
Friederike Holze, Matthias E. Liechti, Felix Müller
4 citations
Psychedelics, including phenethylamines (e.g., mescaline), tryptamines (e.g., psilocybin), and ergolines (e.g., LSD), bind to the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor, causing profound alterations in sensation, cognition, emotions, and self-perception. While generally considered physiologically safe compared to other recreational drugs, they carry risks of lasting psychological adverse reactions such as persisting anxiety, dissociation, or flashbacks. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of their pharmacology, origins, psychological and autonomic effects, interactions, risks, dosing, and consumption methods, distinguishing them from other psychoactive drugs like MDMA and ketamine based on distinct receptor profiles.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2026
Eirini K. Argyri, Jules Evans
3 citations
Psychedelic substances can cause ontologically challenging psychedelic experiences (OCPEs) that profoundly disrupt a person's sense of self, reality, and existence. While some individuals integrate these experiences easily, others face lasting ontological instability, existential distress, and impairment. However, ontological challenges are not always negative; for many who feel adequately resourced, they become a valued part of therapeutic growth. Grounding techniques, cognitive reframing, and supportive structures may help recovery and integration. The authors highlight limits of informed consent in psychedelic therapy and argue for preparation and post-experience support attuned to ontological disruptions. Further research is needed to refine best practices.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
July 24, 2024
Kelan Thomas
3 citations
As psychedelics are studied for more medical uses, understanding their adverse effects and interactions with other drugs is increasingly important. This chapter reviews the known toxicology and drug-drug interactions of classic psychedelics, including LSD, psilocybin, DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, mescaline, 2C-B, Bromo-DragonFLY, and 25X-NBOMe.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2026
Tomislav Majić, Euphrosyne Gouzoulis‐mayfrank, Ricarda Evens
2 citations
Classic psychedelics like psilocybin, LSD, and 5-MeO-DMT show promise for treating mental health conditions, but enthusiastic media coverage has led to increased non-clinical use and more complications. While these substances have low toxicity and low addiction potential, their risks are often overlooked by mental health professionals, mirroring historical patterns with other psychoactive drugs. The effects unfold in acute, subacute, and long-term phases, essential for understanding both therapeutic use and risks. This overview classifies complications associated with classic psychedelics, examines causal attribution of disorders to their use, and discusses placement in diagnostic systems, aiming to maximize benefits and minimize harms in research and therapy.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2026
Anna-Lena Bröcker, Tomislav Majić, Christiane Montag
2 citations
Psychotic symptoms are uncommon and non-specific adverse effects of classic psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline. They can occur during the acute drug phase, persist into the subacute period, or rarely develop into long-term psychotic illness. The symptoms can be deeply distressing due to rapid changes, unpredictability, and adverse behavioral consequences. Psychedelics have been used as research models for schizophrenia because of phenomenological overlaps, but this "model psychosis" paradigm has been criticized: etiology and psychodynamic background only partially apply.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
October 23, 2024
Wolf E Mehling
2 citations
Bud Craig's elegant studies established the structural neural basis for interoception and redefined pain as a homeostatic emotion, an experience based on inferential brain processes within prediction processing. This chapter reviews how Craig's work provides the background for understanding mind-body therapies—such as meditation, mindfulness, yoga, and Tai Chi—which are now first-line non-pharmacological approaches in clinical guidelines for chronic pain management. Craig's research highlights the key role of interoceptive processes in these therapies and has led to new directions for clinical and neuroscientific research on managing chronic pain.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
August 8, 2024
Erika Dyck, James Dixon
2 citations
Harm reduction, formally recognized in the 1980s during the HIV/AIDS crisis, has earlier roots in psychedelic use. In the 1950s and 1960s, early clinical psychedelic researchers incorporated people-first risk management approaches. During the war on drugs, community-based organizations at music festivals provided harm reduction for those using psychedelics. The Native American Church exemplifies Indigenous traditions that combine psychedelic substances with spirituality and healing in community settings to promote wellness. The authors argue that psychedelic risk management has deep historical roots in biomedical, cultural, and Indigenous communities, offering lessons for sustainable strategies going forward.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2026
Marija Franka Žuljević, Tomislav Majić
1 citation
Flashbacks, hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD), and reactivations are complications linked to classic psychedelic use, all involving perceptual disturbances similar to acute drug effects. HPPD is persistent, while flashbacks and reactivations are typically transient and cause less distress. HPPD has low relative prevalence but can be clinically significant; many patients mistakenly believe they have it, but only a minority meet diagnostic criteria. In very rare cases, HPPD becomes chronic and requires long-term treatment, but most cases resolve within a year or become tolerable. Evidence-based treatments are lacking, so current knowledge relies on case reports and clinical experience.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2025
Tim Hirschfeld, Felix Blei, Lavinia Stegemann et al.
1 citation
Drug checking reduces acute harm from misrepresented classic psychedelics by identifying adulterants and unknown potencies. Gas chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry provide the most reliable analysis but are costly and stationary. Combined presumptive tests like thin-layer chromatography and reagent testing offer time-efficient initial screening. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy is a valuable complement, though potent psychedelics on blotter paper or in diluted solution and complex botanical matrices challenge its detection limit, requiring multiple methods to confirm results. Drug checking's consultative component clarifies analytical constraints, promotes safer use practices, and offers health service referrals, protecting individual users and informing public health efforts.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
November 22, 2025
Maha N Mian, Allison R Coker, Grace Kretzer et al.
Communities that use psychedelics as religious sacraments have developed their own frameworks for safety and hold distinct views on risk and harm. To better understand their lived realities, researchers can collaborate closely with these communities using community-based participatory research (CBPR) practices, which center communities in co-creating research, improve engagement, build trust, and highlight local priorities. This paper presents preliminary findings from a CBPR study with entheogenic communities, sharing lessons learned from forming a community advisory board and initial pilot data gathering. Lessons include consulting community engagement experts, considerations for compensation and confidentiality, using multimodal recruitment strategies, and recognizing the unique historical context of these communities. These lessons aim to develop best practices for psychedelic research, policy, and public education.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
July 25, 2025
Alan N Simmons, Marc Wittmann, Irian A Strigo
This chapter reviews the intellectual legacy of A.D. Bud Craig and advances understanding of interoception across three domains: bodily self, emotion, and subjective time. Beginning with foundational research on temperature and pain processing, it describes how interoceptive signals integrate to form bodily self-representation and emotional experiences, then culminates in how interoception shapes time perception, including in altered states of consciousness. The chapter points to future research on computational modeling of interoceptive processing, personalized treatments based on interoceptive principles, and clinical applications for psychiatric, neurological, and pain conditions, while outlining remaining gaps in continuing Craig's seminal career.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
July 12, 2025
Wolfgang H Sommer, Rainer Spanagel
Over a decade after the first edition of "Behavioral Neurobiology of Alcohol Addiction," the field faces persistent challenges and emerging opportunities in developing treatments for alcohol use disorder (AUD). The translational gap between preclinical findings and new treatments remains, exacerbated by a replicability crisis in animal research, publication biases, and limited predictive validity of existing models. Advances offering renewed hope include molecular and circuit-level technologies, AI-driven data analysis, real-world assessments, and new pharmacological candidates such as GLP-1 agonists and psychedelics. Recognition of inflammation, pain, and neuroimmune factors as integral to AUD is increasing. The authors caution against exaggerated claims and oversimplified models, and argue that neurobiological progress must be complemented by public health strategies to reduce stigma and improve access to care.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2026
Lukas Andreas Basedow, Thomas Günther Riemer
Psychedelics are being studied as potential treatments for psychological disorders, but their recreational use is also increasing. This chapter reviews the acute, subacute, and long-term neuropsychological effects of psychedelics. Under the influence, attention and working memory are reduced, which can be risky in high-risk environments like driving. These impairments typically resolve the next day, though some executive functioning deficits may persist up to 24 hours. Repeated use does not appear to cause lasting neuropsychological harm, but more research is needed on different substances and chronic use patterns.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2026
Ricarda Evens, Abdo Uyar, Tomislav Majić
The period after using classic psychedelics often includes an 'afterglow' of elevated mood, well-being, and openness, linked to changes in brain connectivity and neuroplasticity. However, responses vary widely; some people experience negative effects like anxiety, mood swings, depression, perceptual changes, or psychosis. These issues can be reduced through psychedelic integration practices, peer support, or professional mental health care when needed. Managing complications involves ensuring safety, mobilizing resources, supporting psychological processing, addressing maladaptive interpretations, monitoring symptoms, and sometimes using pharmacotherapy or disorder-specific treatments. This chapter outlines strategies for a nuanced harm-reduction framework for research, clinical, and non-clinical settings.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2026
Matthias Michal
Depersonalization (DP) and Derealization (DR) are perceptual changes where the self or surroundings feel unreal, common in mental disorders and central to depersonalization-derealization disorder (DDD). Classic psychedelic drugs often trigger DP/DR symptoms that usually resolve after the drug is eliminated, but DDD is frequently precipitated by drug intoxication, leading some to frame it as a 'never-ending trip.' This article argues that such a conclusion is reductionist, may foster false illness perceptions, hinder awareness of emotional conflicts, and erode self-efficacy. DDD is a mental disorder arising from avoidance of aversive emotional states, related to functional brain network alterations rather than organic damage.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2025
Julian Kiverstein
This chapter examines Bud Craig's theory of 'global emotional moments' (GEMs) and its implications for the experience of time. Craig argued that each GEM is supported by a large-scale neural network centered on the anterior insula cortex, which integrates interoceptive signals from the autonomic nervous system with hedonic and motivational signals from sensory perception. GEMs function as moving windows of time within which a phenomenal, embodied self is experienced. Craig proposed a 'cinemascopic' theory where GEMs combine to form a stream of consciousness like a movie. The author argues that because GEMs have duration, they count against philosophical 'cinematic' theories that treat the phenomenal now as consisting of discrete, instantaneous moments. The chapter concludes by considering how Craig's theory informs debates about whether the phenomenal now has temporal depth.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2025
Marc Wittmann, Sylvie Droit-Volet
The sense of time is strongly embodied, rooted in the temporal dynamics of ascending physiological signals from the body. Functional neuroimaging and psychophysiological evidence show that subjective time judgments depend on the physical and emotional self. Emotions and related body feelings shape subjective time, and altered states of consciousness, such as meditative states, modulate perception of the physical state, thereby affecting the experience of time. The authors conclude that time perception is fundamentally based on bodily signals.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2022
Albert Garcia-Romeu, Sean Darcy, Hillary Jackson et al.
Classic psychedelics that activate the serotonin 2A receptor are being explored as potential treatments for mental health conditions, with evidence suggesting they can produce lasting reductions in anxiety and depression after a single dose. Acute subjective effects appear important for therapeutic benefits. Animal studies indicate these compounds may also influence learning and memory, with relevance for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Proposed biological mechanisms include enhanced neuroplasticity, anti-inflammatory effects, and altered brain connectivity. Human research suggests high-dose psychedelics might help treat depressed mood and anxiety in early-stage Alzheimer's. Preclinical data hint at potential to slow brain atrophy, enhance cognition, and slow disease progression, though further research is needed.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
January 1, 2018
Tomohisa Mori, Tsutomu Suzuki
Drug discrimination procedures help researchers understand the subjective effects of drugs, such as euphoria or dysphoria. Over the past two decades, abuse of club and recreational drugs like PCP, MDMA, ketamine, and cannabinoids has increased, particularly among younger people. Designer drugs that mimic psychostimulants like MDMA or amphetamines are also problematic. However, the mechanisms behind the discriminative stimulus effects of hallucinogenic and dissociative anesthetic drugs remain unclear. This chapter reviews recent animal research on these drug-induced discriminative stimulus properties.