The entropic reorganization of functional brain networks under the psychedelic psilocybin occurs acutely, but how brain activity organization during the psychedelic state relates to subjective experience and the lasting psychological change that can follow remains unresolved. Stoliker et al. now demonstrate that psilocybin-induced brain activity contains latent temporal structure that improves its alignment with environmental context and covaries with the subjective quality of the psychedelic experience. The authors collected the largest single-site acute-phase psilocybin neuroimaging dataset to date, which comprised 62 psychedelic-naive adults who participated on separate days in baseline neuroimaging and neuroimaging under psilocybin.
Approximately five hours after psilocybin administration on that neuroimaging day, each individual self-reported subjective effects via altered-brain-state questionnaires (MEQ and 11D-ASC). During neuroimaging on both days, individuals experienced four sensory–motor contexts (rest, guided meditation, music listening and film watching) that spanned naturalistic brain states that differed in their demands on internally and externally oriented processing. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription Receive 12 print issues and online access Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Stoliker, D.
Psychedelics align brain activity with context. Nature 656, 936–947 (2026) Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar Nature Reviews Neuroscience http://www.nature.com/nrn/ Rogers, J. Temporal structure tunes the psychedelic experience.
Neurosci. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-026-01087-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-026-01087-5
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