Psychedelics change how we see the world. A UC Berkeley study aims to find out why.

June 13, 2024

Psychedelic-assisted therapy is a promising new treatment for psychiatric disorders like anxiety and depression. A new study at UC Berkeley will be one of the first to explore how the psychedelic compound psilocybin interacts with the brain and shapes human perception.

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The UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) is launching a new study, led by HWNI member and BCSP director Michael Silver, to test how the psychedelic compound psilocybin affects the human brain in real-time, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The study will focus on visual perception, but could generate insights into the brain and mind more broadly, and will be the first to use psilocybin in human subjects on the UC Berkeley campus.