Abstract

Mapping the Neuro-Behavioral Space of Self-Dissolution, Self-Other Differentiation, and Information Processing Along the Psychedelic Spectrum

Psychedelic-induced subjective experience of altered self-awareness including the dissolution of self-boundaries, enhanced mood and arousal, and altered modes of thought including belief change have been proposed to variously contribute to the beneficial and therapeutic potential in health and psychiatric disorders.

At the neural level, however, the specific neurocognitive mechanisms underlaying the multi-layered alterations of self/body perception, self-other differentiation and cognition in psychedelic states are largely unknown. Here, I will present new data from studies with psilocybin or ketamine in healthy subjects that employ hierarchical predictive processing models of self-body representation and sensory learning using EEG-fMRI, EEG-ERP recordings, and EEG measures of spontaneous and TMS-evoked complexity, and how this maps on to the various acute subjective effects of the psychedelic experience. Ultimately, a better understanding of the specific mechanism underlying psychedelic drug action may be leveraged to predict individual responses that could allow for a more targeted treatment approach.