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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Neuropharmacology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1454628
This article is part of the Research Topic Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapies: From Clinical Trials to Credibility View all 3 articles

Increased functional connectivity between brain regions involved in social cognition, emotion and affective-value in psychedelic states induced by N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT)

Provisionally accepted
Carla Soares Carla Soares 1Gisela M. Lima Gisela M. Lima 1Marta Pais Marta Pais 1Marta Teixeira Marta Teixeira 1Célia Cabral Célia Cabral 2Miguel Castelo-Branco Miguel Castelo-Branco 1*
  • 1 Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT), Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
  • 2 Coimbra Institute for Clinical and Biomedical Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The modulation of social cognition is suggested as a possible mechanism contributing to the potential clinical efficacy of psychedelics in disorders involving socio-emotional and reward processing deficits. Resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) can be used to detect changes in brain connectivity during psychedelic-induced states. Thus, this pharmacoimaging study investigates the effects of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) on functional connectivity in brain areas relevant to social cognition, using a within-subject design in eleven healthy experienced users. The study included both an active and a control condition, conducted at different time points. The active condition involved DMT inhalation, while the control condition did not. Seed-based connectivity was measured for the two core regions involved in theory of mind and emotional processing, respectively, the posterior supramarginal gyrus and the amygdala. DMT increased supramarginal gyrus connectivity with the precuneus, posterior cingulate gyrus, amygdala, and orbitofrontal cortex. Additionally, increased connectivity emerged between the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex. These results demonstrate that DMT modulates brain connectivity in socio-emotional and affective-value circuits, advancing our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the psychedelic experience and its potential therapeutic action.

    Keywords: psychedelics, N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), pharmacoimaging, functional connectivity, social cognition, fMRI (Min.5-Max. 8

    Received: 25 Jun 2024; Accepted: 17 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Soares, Lima, Pais, Teixeira, Cabral and Castelo-Branco. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Miguel Castelo-Branco, Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT), Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.