See How the Brain Responds to Psychedelic 'Magic Mushrooms'

A new study mapped large, temporary changes in brain areas related to introspection and one’s sense of self, after participants took a dose of the drug psilocybin

Will Sullivan
Daily Correspondent

July 22, 2024 1:43 p.m.



A heat map of brain activity shows stable patterns before and after taking psilocybin in blue and green, while temporary changes are shown in red, orange and yellow. Sara Moser via Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis


The psychedelic drug psilocybin—the active agent in so-called magic mushrooms—causes profound, temporary changes in a network of brain areas involved in introspective thinking, according to a new study published last week in Nature that imaged the brains of people given the drug.

The findings could provide insight into the potential therapeutic effects of psychedelics, a field that’s been gaining notoriety in recent years.

“Psilocybin, in contrast to any other drug we’ve tested, has this massive effect on the whole brain that was pretty unexpected,” Nico Dosenbach, a co-author of the study and neurologist at Washington University, tells the New York Times’ Andrew Jacobs. “It was quite shocking when we saw the effect size.”

Prior studies have also found that psilocybin disrupts brain networks, but the new research “provides a deeper resolution and insight into the nature of that disruption,” Brian Mathur, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland who did not contribute to the findings, says to Nature News’ Max Kozlov.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/see-how-the-brain-responds-to-psychedelic-magic-mushrooms-180984727/