ArticleHuman brain mapping2015
Finding the self by losing the self: Neural correlates of ego-dissolution under psilocybin.
Article in Human brain mapping, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 132 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
132 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 340 citations in OpenAlex.
- What fMRI studies say about the nature of the psychedelic effect: a scoping review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- Synergistic, multi-level understanding of psychedelics: three systematic reviews and meta-analyses of their pharmacology, neuroimaging and phenomenology.Translational psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Functional imaging studies of acute administration of classic psychedelics, ketamine, and MDMA: Methodological limitations and convergent results.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Default Mode Network Modulation by Psychedelics: A Systematic Review.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- A Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)-Guided Dashboard to Review Psilocybin Target Domains: A Systematic Review.CNS drugs · 2022Pooled it
- Low doses of LSD reduce broadband oscillatory power and modulate event-related potentials in healthy adults.Psychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- Spontaneous and deliberate creative cognition during and after psilocybin exposure.Translational psychiatry · 2021Trial
- P300-mediated modulations in self-other processing under psychedelic psilocybin are related to connectedness and changed meaning: A window into the self-other overlap.Human brain mapping · 2020Trial
- Me, myself, bye: regional alterations in glutamate and the experience of ego dissolution with psilocybin.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- Characterization and prediction of acute and sustained response to psychedelic psilocybin in a mindfulness group retreat.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Effective connectivity changes in LSD-induced altered states of consciousness in humans.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Trial
- A sub-set of psychoactive effects may be critical to the behavioral impact of ketamine on cocaine use disorder: Results from a randomized, controlled laboratory study.Neuropharmacology · 2018Trial
- LSD-induced entropic brain activity predicts subsequent personality change.Human brain mapping · 2016Trial
- Resetting the hippocampal buffer: a neurocognitive account of psychedelic therapy for anxiety-related psychopathology.Psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Intact neurophysiological markers of death denial in long-term ayahuasca users.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Multi-metric evaluations of acute psychedelic effects on fMRI brain entropy.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Non-duality in brain and experience of advanced meditators-key role for intrinsic neural timescales.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Investigating Emotional Reactivity in Experienced Users of Psychedelics: A Cross-Sectional fMRI Study.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Psilocybin effects on brain functional connectivity: a systematic review of fMRI studies.Discover mental health · 2026Review
- Neurobiological Correlates of Psychedelic Experiences and Psychedelic-Associated Adverse Effects.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2026Review
72 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Ego-disturbances have been a topic in schizophrenia research since the earliest clinical descriptions of the disorder. Manifesting as a feeling that one's "self," "ego," or "I" is disintegrating or that the border between one's self and the external world is dissolving, "ego-disintegration" or "dissolution" is also an important feature of the psychedelic experience, such as is produced by psilocybin (a compound found in "magic mushrooms"). Fifteen healthy subjects took part in this placebo-controlled study. Twelve-minute functional MRI scans were acquired on two occasions: subjects received an intravenous infusion of saline on one occasion (placebo) and 2 mg psilocybin on the other. Twenty-two visual analogue scale ratings were completed soon after scanning and the first principal component of these, dominated by items referring to "ego-dissolution", was used as a primary measure of interest in subsequent analyses. Employing methods of connectivity analysis and graph theory, an association was found between psilocybin-induced ego-dissolution and decreased functional connectivity between the medial temporal lobe and high-level cortical regions. Ego-dissolution was also associated with a "disintegration" of the salience network and reduced interhemispheric communication. Addressing baseline brain dynamics as a predictor of drug-response, individuals with lower diversity of executive network nodes were more likely to experience ego-dissolution under psilocybin. These results implicate MTL-cortical decoupling, decreased salience network integrity, and reduced inter-hemispheric communication in psilocybin-induced ego disturbance and suggest that the maintenance of "self"or "ego," as a perceptual phenomenon, may rest on the normal functioning of these systems.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.