Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 May 14:15:1386321.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1386321. eCollection 2024.

Alterations in brain network connectivity and subjective experience induced by psychedelics: a scoping review

Zijia Yu  1 , Lisa Burback  1 , Olga Winkler  1 , Lujie Xu  1 , Liz Dennett  2 , Eric Vermetten  3 , Andrew Greenshaw  1   4 , Xin-Min Li  1   4 , Michaela Milne  1   5 , Fei Wang  6 , Bo Cao  1   4 , Ian R Winship  1   4 , Yanbo Zhang  1   4 , Allen W Chan  1   4
Affiliations
Review

Alterations in brain network connectivity and subjective experience induced by psychedelics: a scoping review

Zijia Yu et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Intense interest surrounds current research on psychedelics, particularly regarding their potential in treating mental health disorders. Various studies suggest a link between the subjective effects produced by psychedelics and their therapeutic efficacy. Neuroimaging evidence indicates an association of changes in brain functional connectivity with the subjective effects of psychedelics. We conducted a review focusing on psychedelics and brain functional connectivity. The review focused on four psychedelic drugs: ayahuasca, psilocybin and LSD, and the entactogen MDMA. We conducted searches in databases of MEDLINE, Embase, APA PsycInfo and Scopus from inception to Jun 2023 by keywords related to functional connectivity and psychedelics. Using the PRISMA framework, we selected 24 articles from an initial pool of 492 for analysis. This scoping review and analysis investigated the effects of psychedelics on subjective experiences and brain functional connectivity in healthy individuals. The studies quantified subjective effects through psychometric scales, revealing significant experiences of altered consciousness, mood elevation, and mystical experiences induced by psychedelics. Neuroimaging results indicated alterations in the functional connectivity of psychedelics, with consistent findings across substances of decreased connectivity within the default mode network and increased sensory and thalamocortical connectivity. Correlations between these neurophysiological changes and subjective experiences were noted, suggesting a brain network basis of the psychedelics' neuropsychological impact. While the result of the review provides a potential neural mechanism of the subjective effects of psychedelics, direct clinical evidence is needed to advance their clinical outcomes. Our research serves as a foundation for further exploration of the therapeutic potential of psychedelics.

Keywords: LSD; MDMA; ayahuasca; functional connectivity; psilocybin; psychedelics; subjective effects.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The flow chart of PRISMA.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Grinspoon L, Bakalar JB. Can drugs be used to enhance the psychotherapeutic process? Am J Psych other. (1986) 40:393–404. doi: 10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.1986.40.3.393 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nutt D. Psychedelic drugs-a new era in psychiatry? Dialogues Clin Neurosci. (2019) 21:139–47. doi: 10.31887/DCNS.2019.21.2/dnutt - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cassels BK, Sáez-Briones P. Dark classics in chemical neuroscience: mescaline. ACS Chem Neurosci. (2018) 9:2448–58. doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.8b00215 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Johnson MW, Hendricks PS, Barrett FS, Griffiths RR. Classic psychedelics: An integrative review of epidemiology, therapeutics, mystical experience, and brain network function. Pharmacol Ther. (2019) 197:83–102. doi: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2018.11.010 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nichols DE, Walter H. The history of psychedelics in psychiatry. Pharmacopsychiatry. (2021) 54:151–66. doi: 10.1055/a-1310-3990 - DOI - PubMed

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by a start-up award from the University of Alberta (YZ), the Brain Canada Foundation Future Leaders Award (AWC), and a Puzzles of the Mind award from the Scottish Charitable Rite Foundation (AWC). NSERC Discovery Grant RGPIN-2020-05988 (AWC). The support provided by China Scholarship Council (CSC) is acknowledged (YZ).