Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimagingJul 17, 2023

Brain activity linked to consciousness during psychedelics, hypnosis, and meditation

Psychedelic Science Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Dec 26, 2025

Abstract

Pharmacological and nonpharmacological methods of inducing altered states of consciousness may show distinct neural connectivity patterns.

No significant network was found across all four methods of inducing altered states of consciousness.
Pharmacological and nonpharmacological approaches showed different connectivity patterns that could predict individual responses.
Hypnosis and meditation displayed unique functional connectivity compared to each other and to pharmacological methods.
Psilocybin and LSD did not differ in functional connectivity when directly compared, but they had different relationships between behavior and neural activity.

Simplified

BACKGROUND: Pharmacological and nonpharmacological methods of inducing altered states of consciousness (ASCs) are becoming increasingly relevant in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. While comparisons between them are often drawn, to date no study has directly compared their neural correlates.

METHODS: To address this knowledge gap, we directly compared 2 pharmacological methods (psilocybin 0.2 mg/kg orally [n = 23] and lysergic acid diethylamide [LSD] 100 μg orally [n = 25]) and 2 nonpharmacological methods (hypnosis [n = 30] and meditation [n = 29]) using resting-state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging and assessed the predictive value of the data using a machine learning approach.

RESULTS: We found that 1) no network reached significance in all 4 ASC methods; 2) pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions of inducing ASCs showed distinct connectivity patterns that were predictive at the individual level; 3) hypnosis and meditation showed differences in functional connectivity when compared directly and also drove distinct differences when jointly compared with the pharmacological ASC interventions; and 4) psilocybin and LSD showed no differences in functional connectivity when directly compared with each other, but they did show distinct behavioral-neural relationships.

CONCLUSIONS: Overall, these results extend our understanding of the mechanisms of action of ASCs and highlight the importance of exploring how these effects can be leveraged in the treatment of psychiatric disorders.

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Brain activity linked to consciousness during psychedelics, hypnosis, and meditation

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