Trial reportJournal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)2024
Autonomic nervous system activity correlates with peak experiences induced by DMT and predicts increases in well-being.
Trial report in Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07614581 (Intra-Sessional Autonomic Arc Detection Using Continuous HRV and EDA Monitoring in Adults Undergoing Ketamine-Assisted Therapy for PTSD), which is not on this map. Cited by 10 papers.
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.
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.
Intra-Sessional Autonomic Arc Detection Using Continuous HRV and EDA Monitoring in Adults Undergoing Ketamine-Assisted Therapy for PTSD: A Prospective Observational Signal Characterisation Pilot Study
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Gastrointestinal dysfunction after brain injury: Mechanisms and the role of the brain-gut axis.World journal of gastroenterology · 2026Review
- Psychedelic studies in nonhuman primates: Past and future.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Molecules, meaning, and physiology: disentangling the active ingredients of psychedelic therapeutics.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Autonomic indicators of self-transcendence: insights from the numadelic VR paradigm.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026Article
- The psychedelic-peptide paradox: a hormetic hypothesis.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Review
- Decreased COCommunications psychology · 2025Article
- Psychedelics and the Autonomic Nervous System: A Perspective on Their Interplay and Therapeutic Potential.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2025Article
- Neurobiological substrates of altered states of consciousness induced by high ventilation breathwork accompanied by music.PloS one · 2025Article
- Dynamic medial parietal and hippocampal deactivations under DMT relate to sympathetic output and altered sense of time, space, and the self.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Understanding individual differences in non-ordinary state of consciousness: Relationship between phenomenological experiences and autonomic nervous system.International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHPArticle
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.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNon-ordinary states of consciousness induced by psychedelics can be accompanied by so-called "peak experiences," characterized at the emotional level by their intensity and positive valence. These experiences are strong predictors of positive outcomes following psychedelic-assisted therapy, and it is therefore important to better understand their biology. Despite growing evidence that the autonomic nervous system (ANS) plays an important role in mediating emotional experiences, its involvement in the psychedelic experience is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate to what extent changes in the relative influence of the sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous systems (PNS) over cardiac activity may reflect the subjective experience induced by the short-acting psychedelic N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT).
methodsWe derived measures of SNS and PNS activity from the electrocardiograms of 17 participants (11 males, mean age = 33.8 years, SD = 8.3) while they received either DMT or placebo.
resultsResults show that the joint influence of SNS and PNS ("sympathovagal coactivation") over cardiac activity was positively related to participants' ratings of "Spiritual Experience" and "Insightfulness" during the DMT experience, while also being related to improved well-being scores 2 weeks after the session. In addition, we found that the state of balance between the two ANS branches ("sympathovagal balance") before DMT injection predicted scores of "Insightfulness" during the DMT experience, as well as subsequent sympathovagal coactivation.
conclusionThese findings demonstrate the involvement of the ANS in psychedelic-induced peak experiences and may pave the way to the development of biofeedback-based tools to enhance psychedelic therapy.
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