Trial reportBiological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging2020
Preliminary Report on the Effects of a Low Dose of LSD on Resting-State Amygdala Functional Connectivity.
Trial report in Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 95 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and Safety of Psychedelic Microdosing on Psychological Outcomes in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.CNS drugs · 2026Pooled it
- Keeping the promise: a critique of the current state of microdosing research.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- The effects of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) on the Positive Valence Systems: A Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)-Informed Systematic Review.CNS drugs · 2023Pooled it
- Functional imaging studies of acute administration of classic psychedelics, ketamine, and MDMA: Methodological limitations and convergent results.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Absolute Oral Bioavailability and Bioequivalence of LSD Base and Tartrate in a Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Study.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2025Trial
- Psilocybin-assisted neurofeedback for the improvement of executive functions: a randomized semi-naturalistic-lab feasibility study.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Trial
- Inter-individual variability in neural response to low doses of LSD.Translational psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Neural complexity is increased after low doses of LSD, but not moderate to high doses of oral THC or methamphetamine.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- LSD increases sleep duration the night after microdosing.Translational psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Low doses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) increase reward-related brain activity.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Trial
- Microdosing with psilocybin mushrooms: a double-blind placebo-controlled study.Translational psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Low doses of LSD reduce broadband oscillatory power and modulate event-related potentials in healthy adults.Psychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- Safety pharmacology of acute LSD administration in healthy subjects.Psychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- Effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on functional and structural connectivity in post-COVID-19 condition patients: A randomized, sham-controlled trial.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2022Trial
- Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Microdoses in Healthy Participants.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2021Trial
- Acute dose-dependent effects of lysergic acid diethylamide in a double-blind placebo-controlled study in healthy subjects.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Trial
- Design, Synthesis, and Pharmacokinetic Profiling of Fluorinated ReversibleJournal of medicinal chemistry · 2026Article
- Effect of liner properties on the analysis of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) analogs.Journal of forensic sciences · 2026Article
- Molecules, meaning, and physiology: disentangling the active ingredients of psychedelic therapeutics.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Psychedelic Drugs in Mental Disorders: Current Clinical Scope and Deep Learning-Based Advanced Perspectives.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe practice of "microdosing," or the use of repeated, very low doses of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to improve mood or cognition, has received considerable public attention, but empirical studies are lacking. Controlled studies are needed to investigate both the therapeutic potential and the neurobiological underpinnings of this pharmacologic treatment.
methodsThe present study was designed to examine the effects of a single low dose of LSD (13 μg) versus placebo on resting-state functional connectivity and cerebral blood flow in healthy young adults. Twenty men and women, 18 to 35 years old, participated in 2 functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning sessions in which they received placebo or LSD under double-blind conditions. During each session, the participants completed drug effect and mood questionnaires, and physiological measures were recorded. During expected peak drug effect, they underwent resting-state blood oxygen level-dependent and arterial spin labeling scans. Cerebral blood flow as well as amygdala and thalamic connectivity were analyzed.
resultsLSD increased amygdala seed-based connectivity with the right angular gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, and the cerebellum, and decreased amygdala connectivity with the left and right postcentral gyrus and the superior temporal gyrus. This low dose of LSD had weak and variable effects on mood, but its effects on positive mood were positively correlated with the increase in amygdala-middle frontal gyrus connectivity strength.
conclusionsThese preliminary findings show that a very low dose of LSD, which produces negligible subjective changes, alters brain connectivity in limbic circuits. Additional studies, especially with repeated dosing, will reveal whether these neural changes are related to the drug's purported antidepressant effect.
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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.