↓ Skip to main content

Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging

Overview of attention for article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, April 2016
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Citations

dimensions_citation
576 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
1647 Mendeley
citeulike
5 CiteULike
Title
Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging
Published in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, April 2016
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1518377113
Pubmed ID
Authors

Robin L. Carhart-Harris, Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Leor Roseman, Mendel Kaelen, Wouter Droog, Kevin Murphy, Enzo Tagliazucchi, Eduardo E. Schenberg, Timothy Nest, Csaba Orban, Robert Leech, Luke T. Williams, Tim M. Williams, Mark Bolstridge, Ben Sessa, John McGonigle, Martin I. Sereno, David Nichols, Peter J. Hellyer, Peter Hobden, John Evans, Krish D. Singh, Richard G. Wise, H. Valerie Curran, Amanda Feilding, David J. Nutt

Abstract

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is the prototypical psychedelic drug, but its effects on the human brain have never been studied before with modern neuroimaging. Here, three complementary neuroimaging techniques: arterial spin labeling (ASL), blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) measures, and magnetoencephalography (MEG), implemented during resting state conditions, revealed marked changes in brain activity after LSD that correlated strongly with its characteristic psychological effects. Increased visual cortex cerebral blood flow (CBF), decreased visual cortex alpha power, and a greatly expanded primary visual cortex (V1) functional connectivity profile correlated strongly with ratings of visual hallucinations, implying that intrinsic brain activity exerts greater influence on visual processing in the psychedelic state, thereby defining its hallucinatory quality. LSD's marked effects on the visual cortex did not significantly correlate with the drug's other characteristic effects on consciousness, however. Rather, decreased connectivity between the parahippocampus and retrosplenial cortex (RSC) correlated strongly with ratings of "ego-dissolution" and "altered meaning," implying the importance of this particular circuit for the maintenance of "self" or "ego" and its processing of "meaning." Strong relationships were also found between the different imaging metrics, enabling firmer inferences to be made about their functional significance. This uniquely comprehensive examination of the LSD state represents an important advance in scientific research with psychedelic drugs at a time of growing interest in their scientific and therapeutic value. The present results contribute important new insights into the characteristic hallucinatory and consciousness-altering properties of psychedelics that inform on how they can model certain pathological states and potentially treat others.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 426 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 1,647 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 11 <1%
United Kingdom 10 <1%
Russia 4 <1%
Germany 3 <1%
Brazil 3 <1%
Japan 3 <1%
Switzerland 2 <1%
France 2 <1%
Canada 2 <1%
Other 15 <1%
Unknown 1592 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 303 18%
Student > Ph. D. Student 261 16%
Student > Master 259 16%
Researcher 207 13%
Other 82 5%
Other 224 14%
Unknown 311 19%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Neuroscience 319 19%
Psychology 305 19%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 145 9%
Medicine and Dentistry 138 8%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 76 5%
Other 288 17%
Unknown 376 23%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2277. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 16 December 2023.
All research outputs
#3,672
of 25,589,756 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#116
of 103,382 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#39
of 316,784 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#5
of 889 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,589,756 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 103,382 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 39.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 316,784 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 889 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.