Effects of classic psychedelic drugs on turbulent signatures in brain dynamics

Abstract Psychedelic drugs show promise as safe and effective treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders, yet their mechanisms of action are not fully understood. A fundamental hypothesis is that psychedelics work by dose-dependently changing the functional hierarchy brain dynamics, but it unclear whether different act similarly. Here, we investigated changes in brain’s associated with two (LSD psilocybin). Using a novel turbulence framework, were able to determine vorticity, is, local level synchronization, allowed us extend standard global time-based measure metastability become local-based both space time. This framework produced detailed signatures turbulence-based hierarchical change each psychedelic drug, revealing consistent discriminate effects on higher network, default mode network. Overall, our findings directly support prior modulate (i.e., “compress”) provide quantification these psychedelics. Implications therapeutic applications discussed.