Magic Mushrooms vs. Reality: What Psilocybin Did to This Neurologist’s Brain Is Mind-Boggling

A neurologist in the U.S. conducted a groundbreaking experiment by scanning his brain after injecting a hallucinogen to see how the brain breaks down during drug addiction.

NPR and other news outlets reported Dr. Nico Dosenbach, an associate professor of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, published his findings in the international scientific journal Nature of his placebo-controlled study to examine the brain’s response to psilocybin, the primary psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms.

The genus Psilocybe contains the hallucinogenic compounds psilocybin and psilocin. When consumed, these mushrooms cause distortions in perceptions of time, space, and self-awareness.

Although psilocybin was once thought to be effective in treating depression, it is now prohibited by federal law in the U.S. Recent modifications, however, have relaxed some restrictions surrounding psilocybin, which has sparked efforts to develop therapeutic drug alternatives.

The clinical trial was conducted with seven participants, including Dr. Dosenbach. They received either a 25 mg dose of psilocybin or 40 mg of Ritalin, a central nervous system stimulant known for treating ADHD. Their brains were scanned in an MRI machine 18 times before, during, and three weeks after taking the drugs. Four participants received an additional dose of psilocybin six to twelve months after the initial drug administration.

Those who took psilocybin showed three times the patterns of brain activity compared to those who took Ritalin.

The brain displayed red or orange when it connected with other regions, and according to Dr. Dosenbach’s MRI scans, his brain looked primarily red. “Psilocybin, in contrast to any other drug we’ve tested, has this massive effect on the whole brain that was pretty unexpected,” Dr. Dosenbach said. “It was quite shocking when we saw the effect size.”

The research team was surprised at the scans taken days or weeks after the drugs, as specific changes in the brain persisted for a considerable amount of time despite the brain reverting to its original state before psilocybin.

Lead author Dr. Joshua Siegel noted that psilocybin disrupted the functional connectivity (FC) of the cerebral cortex and subcortical regions, interfering with the brain’s default mode network (DMN), which activates when the brain is at rest or not engaged in specific tasks.

He explained that network activity became disordered, and network boundaries disappeared.

Dr. Siegal explained the phenomenon using the analogy of a synchronized stadium wave. Normally, millions of neurons work in sync during day-to-day activities. However, when a psychedelic like psilocybin affects the brain, those neurons begin to fire chaotically. “It’s like having thousands of stadium fans randomly raise their hands,” he said.

His theory is that chaotic brain activity drives neuroplasticity, the brain’s capacity to reorganize or rewire after damage to the central nervous system, which may enable patients to overcome rigid thought patterns. This could provide insights into how to treat depression, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Dr. Siegel noted that the experience was akin to becoming someone else. Dr. Dosenbach, who administered the substance to himself, recalled that while some people report seeing God when they take hallucinogens, he felt as if he became the universe due to his non-religious perspective. He mentioned that his sense of location and time completely vanished during the experience.

The research team, however, cautioned this approach still carries risks. Dr. Ginger Nicol, a psychiatrist on the research team, mentioned that her husband participated in the experiment and took psilocybin twice. “He had an almost religious experience the first time. The second time, he saw demons.,” she shared, adding that it could take years to find clues for treatment through this research.

While it is being researched abroad as a treatment for depression, drug abuse-related problems remain a challenge.