This is your brain on magic mushrooms

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-05-06 01:00

Australia; International; QLD

Photo by julien Tromeur on Unsplash

Modest changes in the brain can be seen a month after a first-time psychedelic experience with magic mushrooms, according to international and Australian researchers. The team recruited 28 healthy people who had never taken magic mushrooms before, and scanned their brains within an hour of a single high-dose of psilocybin and a month after. The researchers say that, after a month, modest brain changes were visible relating to cognitive flexibility, psychological insight and wellbeing. They say previous similar research on people with depression has yielded stronger results.

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Journal/
conference: Nature Communications

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland, Imperial College London, UK, University of California San Francisco, USA

Funder: This work was funded by philanthropic donations to the Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London. T.L. received an MRCDTP Studentship, H.M.D. received an Imperial College London President’s PhD Scholarships. R.C.H. was supported by the Alex Mosley Charitable Trust and the Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professorship (UCSF). Further support was provided by The Beckley Foundation. Infrastructure support was provided by the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR Imperial Clinical Research Facility. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

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