How Psilocybin May Rewire the Brain

“One of the most interesting things we’ve learned about the classic psychedelics is that they have a dramatic effect on the way brain systems synchronize, or move and groove together,” said Matthew Johnson, a professor in psychedelics and consciousness at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

“When someone’s on psilocybin, we see an overall increase in connectivity between areas of the brain that don’t normally communicate well,” Johnson said. “You also see the opposite of that – local networks in the brain that normally interact with each other quite a bit suddenly communicate less.”

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More Psilocybin Research

Studies over the past several years have shown promise in using psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat psychiatric disorders like depression.

A recent follow-up study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers found two doses of the hallucinogenic compound coupled with psychotherapy resulted in large decreases in major depressive disorder symptoms for most of the study’s participants.

New research is hinting at how the hallucinogenic compound may facilitate reduced depression symptoms.

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