Brain Imaging Studies with Psilocybin and MDMA - Robin Carhart-Harris
Channel: MAPS
Date: 2013-08-12

https://2013.psychedelicscience.org
https://www.maps.org

Brain Imaging Studies with Psilocybin and MDMA

Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD

Abstract: Highlighting the results of two fMRI studies and one MEG study with psilocybin and an fMRI study with MDMA, Carhart-Harris will report the effects of both drugs on regional brain activity and brain network organization. Additionally, he will report the effects of both drugs on brain and subjective responses to personal autobiographical memory cues. A general theory will be presented on how psychedelics alter brain activity to alter consciousness and the implications of these brain imaging results for therapeutic applications of psychedelics will be discussed.

A general theory will be presented on how psychedelics alter brain activity to alter consciousness and the implications of these brain imaging results for therapeutic applications of psychedelics will be discussed.

Robin Carhart-Harris completed his doctorate in psychopharmacology at the University of Bristol in 2009 after which he moved to Imperial College London to continue his fMRI research with the classic psychedelic drug psilocybin. In the last few years, Carhart-Harris & Professor David Nutt have built up a programme of research with psychedelics that includes fMRI and MEG imaging with psilocybin, fMRI with MDMA and soon an MRC-sponsored clinical trial to assess the efficacy of psilocybin as a treatment for major depression. Carhart-Harris has a review article published in Brain on the neurobiology of Freudian constructs and his work with psilocybin is now published in PNAS, the British Journal of Psychiatry, and Schizophrenia Bulletin. Carhart-Harris has been supported by the Beckley Foundation, the Neuropsychoanalysis Foundation, the Heffter Foundation, and MAPS.

More videos available at https://2013.psychedelicscience.org

At Psychedelic Science 2013, over 100 of the world's leading researchers and more than 1,900 international attendees gathered to share recent findings on the benefits and risks of LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, ayahuasca, ibogaine, 2C-B, ketamine, DMT, marijuana, and more, over three days of conference presentations, and two days of pre- and post-conference workshops.