Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Psychedelics lead to profound changes in subjective experience and behaviour, which are typically conceptualised in psychological terms rather than corresponding to an altered brain state or a distinct state of vigilance. Here, we performed chronic electrophysiological recordings from the neocortex concomitant with pupillometry in freely moving adult male mice following an injection of a short-acting psychedelic 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT). We report an acute induction of a dissociated state, characterised by prominent slow oscillations in the cortex and marked pupil dilation in behaviourally awake, moving animals. REM sleep was initially markedly suppressed, but was overcompensated in the subsequent 48 hours, while administration of 5-MeO-DMT immediately after sleep deprivation attenuated the subsequent rebound of sleep slow-wave activity. We argue that the occurrence of a dissociated state combining features of waking and sleep may fundamentally underpin the known and hypothesised effects of psychedelics - from dream-like hallucinations to reopening of the critical period for plasticity.
Source: Communications Biology
Institution: University of Oxford
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,190
Awards: Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi), G2379693843, The melanopsin signalling pathway in ocular, circadian and sleep physiology: mechanisms to clinical application., G5060116330, G5993129374, Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi), G6569275014, G6689062412, The Oxford Interdisciplinary Bioscience Doctoral Training Partnership, Local sleep homeostasis and single cell rest, The melanopsin signalling pathway in ocular, circadian and sleep physiology: mechanisms to clinical application.
OpenAlex ID: W7118195776