Psilocybin's acute and persistent brain effects: A precision imaging drug trial

Authors

• Subha Subramanian, Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. ssubram5@bidmc.harvard.edu.
• Travis Rick Reneau, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
• Demetrius Perry, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
• Ravi Chacko, Advocate Health - MidwestFollow
• Timothy O. Laumann, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
• Karin Flavin, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
• Christine Horan, Miami VA Medical Center, Miami, FL, USA.
• Julie Schweiger, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
• Nicholas Metcalf, Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA.
• Eric J. Lenze, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
• Abraham Z. Snyder, Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA.
• Nico U. Dosenbach, Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA.
• Ginger Nicol, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
• Joshua S. Siegel, Department of Psychiatry, NYU Langone Center for Psychedelic Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. Joshua.Siegel@nyulangone.org.

Recommended Citation

Subramanian S, Reneau TR, Perry D, et al. Psilocybin's acute and persistent brain effects: a precision imaging drug trial. Sci Data. 2025;12(1):941. Published 2025 Jun 5. doi:10.1038/s41597-025-05189-0

Affiliations

Advocate Christ Medical Center

Abstract

Psilocybin (PSIL) is a psychedelic drug and a promising experimental therapeutic for many psychiatric conditions. Precision functional mapping (PFM) combines densely repeated resting state fMRI sampling and individual-specific network mapping to improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and effect size in brain imaging research. We present a randomized cross-over study in which PFM was used to characterize acute and persistent effects of psilocybin or methylphenidate (MTP) on brain networks. Seven healthy volunteers (mean age 34.1 years, SD = 9.8; n = 3 females, n = 6 Caucasians) underwent (1) extensive baseline imaging, (2) imaging beginning 60-90 minutes after drug exposure, and (3) longitudinal imaging for up to two weeks after drug exposure. Four individuals also participated in an open-label PSIL replication protocol over 6 months later. This dataset includes resting state (using advanced high-resolution multi-echo fMRI), task fMRI, structural, and diffusion basis spectral imaging as well as assessments of subjective experience. We are releasing this unique dataset as a resource for neuroscientists to study the acute and persistent effects of PSIL and MTP on brain networks.

Type

Article

PubMed ID

40473634