Skip to main content
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Rights and Permissions
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Latest Articles
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • Archive
  • Front Matter
  • News
    • For the Press
    • Highlights from Latest Articles
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Purpose and Scope
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • For Reviewers
    • Author FAQ
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Rights and Permissions
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Latest Articles
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • Archive
  • Front Matter
  • News
    • For the Press
    • Highlights from Latest Articles
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Purpose and Scope
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • For Reviewers
    • Author FAQ

New Research In

Physical Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Applied Mathematics
  • Applied Physical Sciences
  • Astronomy
  • Computer Sciences
  • Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
  • Engineering
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Mathematics
  • Statistics

Social Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Economic Sciences
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Political Sciences
  • Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
  • Social Sciences

Biological Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Agricultural Sciences
  • Anthropology
  • Applied Biological Sciences
  • Biochemistry
  • Biophysics and Computational Biology
  • Cell Biology
  • Developmental Biology
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Evolution
  • Genetics
  • Immunology and Inflammation
  • Medical Sciences
  • Microbiology
  • Neuroscience
  • Pharmacology
  • Physiology
  • Plant Biology
  • Population Biology
  • Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
  • Sustainability Science
  • Systems Biology

Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin

Robin L. Carhart-Harris, David Erritzoe, Tim Williams, James M. Stone, Laurence J. Reed, Alessandro Colasanti, Robin J. Tyacke, Robert Leech, Andrea L. Malizia, Kevin Murphy, Peter Hobden, John Evans, Amanda Feilding, Richard G. Wise and David J. Nutt
PNAS January 23, 2012. 201119598; published ahead of print January 23, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1119598109
Robin L. Carhart-Harris
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
David Erritzoe
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Tim Williams
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
James M. Stone
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Laurence J. Reed
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Alessandro Colasanti
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Robin J. Tyacke
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Robert Leech
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Andrea L. Malizia
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Kevin Murphy
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Peter Hobden
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
John Evans
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Amanda Feilding
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Richard G. Wise
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
David J. Nutt
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  1. Edited by Leslie Lars Iversen, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, and approved December 20, 2011 (received for review December 3, 2011)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Authors & Info
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Psychedelic drugs have a long history of use in healing ceremonies, but despite renewed interest in their therapeutic potential, we continue to know very little about how they work in the brain. Here we used psilocybin, a classic psychedelic found in magic mushrooms, and a task-free functional MRI (fMRI) protocol designed to capture the transition from normal waking consciousness to the psychedelic state. Arterial spin labeling perfusion and blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI were used to map cerebral blood flow and changes in venous oxygenation before and after intravenous infusions of placebo and psilocybin. Fifteen healthy volunteers were scanned with arterial spin labeling and a separate 15 with BOLD. As predicted, profound changes in consciousness were observed after psilocybin, but surprisingly, only decreases in cerebral blood flow and BOLD signal were seen, and these were maximal in hub regions, such as the thalamus and anterior and posterior cingulate cortex (ACC and PCC). Decreased activity in the ACC/medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was a consistent finding and the magnitude of this decrease predicted the intensity of the subjective effects. Based on these results, a seed-based pharmaco-physiological interaction/functional connectivity analysis was performed using a medial prefrontal seed. Psilocybin caused a significant decrease in the positive coupling between the mPFC and PCC. These results strongly imply that the subjective effects of psychedelic drugs are caused by decreased activity and connectivity in the brain's key connector hubs, enabling a state of unconstrained cognition.

  • default mode network
  • hallucinogens
  • serotonin
  • depression
  • 5-HT2A receptor

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: d.nutt{at}imperial.ac.uk.
  • Author contributions: R.L.C.-H., J.E., R.G.W., and D.J.N. designed research; R.L.C.-H., D.E., T.W., J.M.S., L.J.R., A.C., R.J.T., R.L., A.L.M., K.M., P.H., J.E., A.F., and R.G.W. performed research; R.L.C.-H., K.M., and R.G.W. analyzed data; and R.L.C.-H., K.M., R.G.W., and D.J.N. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1119598109/-/DCSupplemental.

Next
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
Citation Tools
Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin
Robin L. Carhart-Harris, David Erritzoe, Tim Williams, James M. Stone, Laurence J. Reed, Alessandro Colasanti, Robin J. Tyacke, Robert Leech, Andrea L. Malizia, Kevin Murphy, Peter Hobden, John Evans, Amanda Feilding, Richard G. Wise, David J. Nutt
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2012, 201119598; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1119598109

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin
Robin L. Carhart-Harris, David Erritzoe, Tim Williams, James M. Stone, Laurence J. Reed, Alessandro Colasanti, Robin J. Tyacke, Robert Leech, Andrea L. Malizia, Kevin Murphy, Peter Hobden, John Evans, Amanda Feilding, Richard G. Wise, David J. Nutt
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 2012, 201119598; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1119598109
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

More Articles of This Classification

Biological Sciences

  • β-Amyloid accumulation in the human brain after one night of sleep deprivation
  • Physical interaction of junctophilin and the CaV1.1 C terminus is crucial for skeletal muscle contraction
  • Nucleus-specific expression in the multinuclear mushroom-forming fungus Agaricus bisporus reveals different nuclear regulatory programs
Show more

Neuroscience

  • Long-wavelength (reddish) hues induce unusually large gamma oscillations in the primate primary visual cortex
  • Neural precursors of future liking and affective reciprocity
  • Spider toxin inhibits gating pore currents underlying periodic paralysis
Show more

Related Content

  • Hallucinogen actions on human brain revealed
  • Scopus
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited by...

  • Does psychedelic drug use reduce risk of suicidality? Evidence from a longitudinal community-based cohort of marginalised women in a Canadian setting
  • Effects of serotonin 2A/1A receptor stimulation on social exclusion processing
  • Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging
  • Psychedelics
  • Mechanisms of Action and Persistent Neuroplasticity by Drugs of Abuse
  • Homological scaffolds of brain functional networks
  • Manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging reveals increased DOI-induced brain activity in a mouse model of schizophrenia
  • Mind-altering drugs and research: from presumptive prejudice to a Neuroscientific Enlightenment?: Science & Society series on "Drugs and Science"
  • Broadband Cortical Desynchronization Underlies the Human Psychedelic State
  • Identification of Three Residues Essential for 5-Hydroxytryptamine 2A-Metabotropic Glutamate 2 (5-HT2A{middle dot}mGlu2) Receptor Heteromerization and Its Psychoactive Behavioral Function
  • Carphology by A Fo Ben
  • Hallucinogen actions on human brain revealed
  • Scopus (214)
  • Google Scholar

Similar Articles

You May Also be Interested in

Core Concept: Microgrids offer flexible energy generation, for a price
Already in the works in several places, microgrids could prove very useful for remote or vulnerable locales such as Puerto Rico, as well as those areas seeking grid independence—if, that is, technical and regulatory hurdles can be overcome.
Image courtesy of Mlinda.
Karina Guziewicz and Artur Cideciyan explain a potential gene therapy approach for macular degeneration.
Gene therapy for retinal disease
Karina Guziewicz and Artur Cideciyan explain a potential gene therapy approach for macular degeneration.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
PNAS Profile of Alexander Rudensky, winner of the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science
PNAS Profile
PNAS Profile of Alexander Rudensky, winner of the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science
Ambrosia beetles, which bore into host trees and cultivate fungi, select trees with elevated ethanol content because ethanol promotes growth of preferred fungal species.
Fungus-farming beetles use alcohol to screen symbionts
Ambrosia beetles, which bore into host trees and cultivate fungi, select trees with elevated ethanol content because ethanol promotes growth of preferred fungal species.
Image courtesy of Gernot Kunz (Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Graz, Austria).
A study examines the walking and climbing capabilities of human ancestors.
Evolution of human locomotion
A study examines the walking and climbing capabilities of human ancestors.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 115 (17)
Current Issue

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Authors & Info
  • PDF
Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Latest Articles
  • Archive

PNAS Portals

  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Teaching Resources
  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science

Information for

  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • Press

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2018 National Academy of Sciences.