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The Effects of Serotonergic Psychedelics on Neural Activity: A Meta-Analysis of Task-Based Functional Neuroimaging Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2023

J. H. Shepherd ,
C. Baten ,
A. Klassen ,
G. Zamora ,
S. Saravia ,
E. Pritchard ,
Z. Ali ,
S. K. Kahlon ,
K. Whitelock  and
F. A. Reyes
...Show all authors
J. H. Shepherd*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, California State University, Fresno
C. Baten
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, California State University, Fresno
A. Klassen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, California State University, Fresno
G. Zamora
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, California State University, Fresno
S. Saravia
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, California State University, Fresno
E. Pritchard
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, California State University, Fresno
Z. Ali
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, California State University, Fresno
S. K. Kahlon
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, California State University, Fresno
K. Whitelock
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego
F. A. Reyes
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, California State University, Fresno
D. W. Hedges
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University, Provo, United States
J. P. Hamilton
Affiliation:
Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
M. D. Sacchet
Affiliation:
Meditation Research Program, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
C. H. Miller
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, California State University, Fresno
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Curiosity toward the effects of psychedelic drugs on neural activation has increased due to their potential therapeutic benefits, particularly serotonergic psychedelics that act as 5-HT2A receptor agonists such as LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA. However, the pattern of their effects on neural activity in various brain regions in both clinical and healthy populations is still not well understood, and primary studies addressing this issue have sometimes generated inconsistent results.

Objectives

The present meta-analysis aims to advance our understanding of the most widely used serotonergic psychedelics – LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA – by examining their effects on the functional activation throughout the whole brain among both clinical and healthy participants.

Methods

We conducted this meta-analysis by applying multilevel kernel density analysis (MKDA) with ensemble thresholding to quantitatively combine existing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies that examined whole-brain functional activation of clinical or healthy participants who were administered a serotonergic psychedelic.

Results

Serotonergic psychedelics, including LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA, exhibited significant effects (α=0.05) on neural activation in several regions throughout the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia, including effects that may be common across and unique within each drug.

Conclusions

These observed effects of serotonergic psychedelics on neural activity advance our understanding of the functional neuroanatomy associated with their administration and may inform future studies of both their adverse and therapeutic effects, including emerging clinical applications for the treatment of several psychiatric disorders.

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared

Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 66 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 31st European Congress of Psychiatry , March 2023 , pp. S921
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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