Oestreich, L. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2024

Human brain changes after first psilocybin use

Psychedelics have robust effects on acute brain function and long-term behavior but whether they also cause enduring functional and anatomical brain changes is unknown. In a placebo-controlled, within-subjects, electroencephalography, and magnetic resonance imaging study in 28 healthy, entirely psychedelic-naive participants, anatomical and functional brain changes were detected from one-hour to one-month after a single high-dose (25 mg) of psilocybin. Increases in cognitive flexibility, psychological insight, and well-being were seen at one-month. Diffusion imaging done before and one-month after 25mg psilocybin revealed decreased axial diffusivity bilaterally in prefrontal-subcortical tracts that correlated with decreased brain network modularity over the same time period. Decreased modularity also correlated with improved well-being. Increased cortical signal entropy at 1- and 2-hours post-dosing predicted improved psychological well-being at one-month. Next-day psychological insight mediated the entropy to well-being relationship. All effects were exclusive to 25mg psilocybin; no effects occurred with a 1mg psilocybin placebo dose.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Auditory prediction errors and auditory white matter microstructure as predictors of psychotic experiences in healthy individuals

Our sensory systems actively predict sensory information based on previously learnt patterns. An inability to accurately predict forthcoming information results in prediction errors. Individuals with schizophrenia consistently show reduced auditory prediction errors as well as reduced microstructure in auditory white matter pathways. However, it is not clear if also healthy individuals with psychotic experiences demonstrate such deficits. Participants underwent electroencephalography (EEG) recordings while listening to a simple two-tone duration deviant oddball paradigm (N=103) and a stochastic oddball paradigm (N=89). A subset of participants (N=89) also underwent diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), from which fractional anisotropy (FA), a measure of overall white matter microstructure, was obtained for auditory pathways namely the auditory interhemispheric pathway, as well as the left and right arcuate fasciculi. We investigated both structural and functional predictors of positive psychotic experiences in healthy participants as measured by the Community Assessment for Psychic Experiences positive dimension (CAPE+) scores. Prediction errors evoked by the classical oddball paradigm failed to reveal significant effects, whereas the stochastic oddball paradigm revealed significant clusters at typical mismatch negativity periods predictive of CAPE+ scores. Furthermore, we show that white matter microstructure from auditory pathways in addition to mismatches significantly predict CAPE+ scores. We suggest that structural and functional prediction error measures together may have potential in predicting psychotic experiences in the healthy population.

neuroscience↗