Current topics in behavioral neurosciencesDec 28, 2016

Experience, Brain Patterns, and Changes Over Time in Psychedelic States

Psychedelic Science Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Apr 6, 2026

Abstract

Psychedelics are associated with profound alterations in sensory perception, mood, and the sense of self.

Altered states of consciousness (ASC) from psychedelics can be characterized by three primary dimensions: oceanic boundlessness, anxious ego-dissolution, and visionary restructuralization.
11 lower-order factors related to ASCs can be reliably measured using the altered state of consciousness questionnaire (APZ-OAV).
Psychedelic experiences may progress through various stages along a perception-hallucination continuum, influenced by increasing arousal and ego-dissolution.
Acute effects of psychedelics include changes in sensory perception, emotion, cognition, creativity, and time perception, potentially linked to specific neural mechanisms.
Non-pharmacological factors such as demographics, genetics, personality, mood, and setting may influence the acute psychedelic experience and its long-term effects.

Simplified

Classic serotonergic hallucinogens or psychedelics produce an altered states of consciousness (ASC) that is characterized by profound alterations in sensory perception, mood, thought including the perception of reality, and the sense of self. Over the past years, there has been considerable progress in the search for invariant and common features of psychedelic states. In the first part of this review, we outline contemporary approaches to characterize the structure of ASCs by means of three primary etiology-independent dimensions including oceanic boundlessness, anxious ego-dissolution, and visionary restructuralization as well as by 11 lower-order factors, all of which can be reliably measured by the altered state of consciousness questionnaire (APZ-OAV). The second part sheds light on the dynamic nature of psychedelic experiences. Frequently, psychedelic subjects progress through different stages over time and levels of changes along a perception-hallucination continuum of increasing arousal and ego-dissolution. We then review in detail the acute effects of psychedelics on sensory perception, emotion, cognition, creativity, and time perception along with possible neural mechanisms underlying them. The next part of this review outlines the influence of non-pharmacological factors (predictors) on the acute psychedelic experience, such as demographics, genetics, personality, mood, and setting, and also discusses some long-term effects succeeding the acute experience. The last part presents some recent concepts and models attempting to understand different facets of psychedelic states of consciousness from a neuroscientific perspective.

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Experience, Brain Patterns, and Changes Over Time in Psychedelic States

Abstract

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