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Psychedelics have robust effects on acute brain function and long-term behavior but whether they also cause enduring functional and anatomical brain changes is largely unknown. In an exploratory, placebo-controlled, within-subjects, electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study in 28 healthy, entirely psychedelic-naive participants, anatomical and functional brain changes are detected from one-hour to one-month after a single high-dose (25âmg) of psilocybin. Increases in cognitive flexibility, psychological insight, and well-being are seen at one-month. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) done before and one-month after 25âmg psilocybin reveals decreased axial diffusivity bilaterally in prefrontal-subcortical tracts that correlate with decreases in brain network modularity (fMRI) over the same month. Enduring functional brain changes are largely absent, but network modularity change (numerical decrease) negatively correlates with well-being change (significant increase), in line with previous findings in depression. Increased cortical signal entropy (EEG) at 1- and 2-hours post-dosing predicts improved psychological well-being at one-month. Next-day psychological insight mediates the entropy to well-being relationship. All effects are exclusive to 25âmg psilocybin; no effects occur with a 1âmg psilocybin placebo.
Participants took 25mg of psilocybin, reporting deeper psychological insight and better wellbeing a month later
A single dose of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, can induce anatomical changes in the brain, according to research among people who took the psychedelic compound for the first time.
Scientists spotted apparent changes in the brain’s structure which were still apparent a month after healthy volunteers took the drug. If confirmed, they may help explain the therapeutic effects that psychedelics can have on anxiety, depression and addiction, researchers said.
Evidence for the changes came from specialised scans that measured the diffusion of water along nerve bundles in the brain. They suggested that some nerve tracts had become denser and more robust after the drug was taken. While the findings are preliminary, the scientists said the opposite was seen in ageing and dementia.
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Researchers at UC San Francisco and Imperial College London have shown that a single dose of psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms, causes likely anatomical brain changes that last for up to a month after the experience.
The study, published in Nature Communications, was done in healthy volunteers who had never taken a psychedelic, but it may help explain psilocybin's therapeutic effects on conditions like depression, anxiety, and addiction. The researchers link temporary shifts in brain "entropy"—which is the diversity of neural activity occurring in the brain—to insight. This suggests the psychedelic trip itself is important to the drug's longer-term therapeutic effects.
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