LSD modulates music-induced imagery via changes in parahippocampal connectivity
This fMRI study (n=12) suggests that music may be an important factor in LSD-assisted psychotherapy. The authors propose that music may work together with LSD via the parahippocampal cortex to induce visual imagery.
Authors
- Suresh Muthukumaraswamy
- Robin Carhart-Harris
- David Nutt
Published
Abstract
Psychedelic drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) were used extensively in psychiatry in the past and their therapeutic potential is beginning to be re-examined today. Psychedelic psychotherapy typically involves a patient lying with their eyes-closed during peak drug effects, while listening to music and being supervised by trained psychotherapists. In this context, music is considered to be a key element in the therapeutic model; working in synergy with the drug to evoke therapeutically meaningful thoughts, emotions and imagery. The underlying mechanisms involved in this process have, however, never been formally investigated. Here we studied the interaction between LSD and music-listening on eyes-closed imagery by means of a placebo-controlled, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. Twelve healthy volunteers received intravenously administered LSD (75 µg) and, on a separate occasion, placebo, before being scanned under eyes-closed resting conditions with and without music-listening. The parahippocampal cortex (PHC) has previously been linked with (1) music-evoked emotion, (2) the action of psychedelics, and (3) mental imagery. Imaging analyses therefore focused on changes in the connectivity profile of this particular structure. Results revealed increased PHC-visual cortex (VC) functional connectivity and PHC to VC information flow in the interaction between music and LSD. This latter result correlated positively with ratings of enhanced eyes-closed visual imagery, including imagery of an autobiographical nature. These findings suggest a plausible mechanism by which LSD works in combination with music listening to enhance certain subjective experiences that may be useful in a therapeutic context.
Research Summary of 'LSD modulates music-induced imagery via changes in parahippocampal connectivity'
Introduction
Kaelen and colleagues situate their study in a long history of humans using psychedelics in combination with music and note that modern clinical interest in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has re-emerged. Earlier work suggests that music can act synergistically with psychedelics to enhance emotionality, mental imagery and access to personal memories, and prior neuroimaging studies implicate serotonin 2A receptor–mediated effects on high-level association cortices and medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures during psychedelic states. The parahippocampal cortex (PHC) is highlighted as a key MTL hub involved in scene imagination, autobiographical memory and music-evoked emotion, and is known to show altered functioning under psychedelics; direct stimulation of PHC can produce visual hallucinations and autobiographical imagery, motivating examination of PHC connectivity as a mechanistic substrate for music-evoked imagery under LSD. This study set out to test the hypothesis that LSD, in combination with music listening, modulates PHC functional connectivity and that such changes in connectivity would relate to enhancements in eyes-closed visual imagery and spontaneous autobiographical recollection. Using a balanced-order, placebo-controlled functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design, the investigators assessed seed-based PHC connectivity and applied Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM) to probe the directionality of information flow between the PHC and visual cortex (VC), relating effective connectivity changes to in-scanner and post-scan subjective ratings of imagery and memory.
Expert Research Summaries
Go Pro to access AI-powered section-by-section summaries, editorial takes, and the full research toolkit.
Study Details
- Study Typeindividual
- Journal
- Compound
- Topics
- Authors
- APA Citation
Kaelen, M., Roseman, L., Kahan, J., Santos-Ribeiro, A., Orban, C., Lorenz, R., Barrett, F. S., Bolstridge, M., Williams, T., Williams, L., Wall, M. B., Feilding, A., Muthukumaraswamy, S., Nutt, D. J., & Carhart-Harris, R. (2016). LSD modulates music-induced imagery via changes in parahippocampal connectivity. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 26(7), 1099-1109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2016.03.018
References (12)
Papers cited by this study that are also in Blossom
Bogenschutz, M. P., Forcehimes, A. A., Pommy, J. A. et al. · Journal of Psychopharmacology (2015)
Carhart-Harris, R. L., Erritzoe, D., Williams, T. et al. · PNAS (2012)
Carhart-Harris, R. L., Leech, R., Williams, T. M. et al. · British Journal of Psychiatry (2018)
Carhart-Harris, R. L., Leech, R., Shanahan, M. et al. · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (2014)
Gasser, P., Holstein, D., Michel, Y. et al. · Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease (2014)
Johnson, M. W., Garcia-Romeu, A., Cosimano, M. P. et al. · Journal of Psychopharmacology (2014)
Kaelen, M., Barrett, F. S., Roseman, L. et al. · Psychopharmacology (2015)
Kometer, M., Pokorny, T., Seifritz, E. et al. · Psychopharmacology (2015)
Muthukumaraswamy, S. D., Carhart-Harris, R. L., Moran, R. J. et al. · Journal of Neuroscience (2013)
Riba, J., Anderer, P., Morte, A. et al. · British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (2002)
Show all 12 referencesShow fewer
Studerus, E., Gamma, A., Kometer, M. et al. · PLOS ONE (2012)
Vollenweider, F. X., Leenders, K. L., Maguire, P. et al. · Neuropsychopharmacology (1997)
Cited By (58)
Papers in Blossom that reference this study
Harding, R., Singer, N., Wall, M. B. et al. · Molecular Psychiatry (2025)
Piccinini, J. I., Perl, Y. S., Pallavicini, C. et al. · Communications Biology (2025)
Ertl, N., Ashraf, I., Azizi, L. et al. · Biorxiv (2025)
Shinozuka, K., Jerotic, K., Mediano, P. A. M. et al. · Translational Psychiatry (2024)
Stoliker, D., Preller, K. H., Novelli, L. et al. · Molecular Psychiatry (2024)
Shinozuka, K., Tewarie, P. K. B., Luppi, A. et al. · Biorxiv (2024)
Erritzoe, D., Timmermann, C., Godfrey, K. et al. · Nature Mental Health (2024)
Neumann, J., Dhein, S., Kirchhefer, U. et al. · Frontiers in Pharmacology (2024)
Wall, M. B., Harding, R., Zafar, R. et al. · Molecular Psychiatry (2023)
Wall, M. B., Lam, C., Ertl, N. et al. · Journal of Affective Disorders (2023)
Show all 58 papersShow fewer
Adamska, I., Finc, K. · Psychopharmacology (2023)
Thal, S. B., Wieberneit, M., Sharbanee, J. M. et al. · Journal of Humanistic Psychology (2023)
Michael, P., Luke, D., Robinson, O. · Frontiers in Psychology (2023)
Bedford, P., Hauke, D. J., Wang, Z. et al. · Neuropsychopharmacology (2022)
Stoliker, D., Egan, G. F., Friston, K. J. et al. · Pharmacological Reviews (2022)
McCulloch, D. E-W., Knudsen, G. M., Barrett, F. S. et al. · Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews (2022)
Lawrence, D. W., Carhart-Harris, R. L., Griffiths, R. R. et al. · Research Square (2022)
Balaet, M. · Frontiers in Neuroscience (2022)
Villiger, D. · Frontiers in Psychiatry (2022)
Golden, T. L., Magsamen, S., Sandu, C. C. et al. · Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences (2022)
Vollenweider, F. X., Smallridge, J. W. · Pharmacopsychiatry (2022)
Barrett, F. S., Zhou, Y., Carbonaro, T. M. et al. · Frontiers in Neuroergonomics (2022)
Dursun, S. M., Kelly, J. R., Gillan, C. M. et al. · Frontiers in Psychiatry (2021)
Doss, M. K., Madden, M. B., Gaddis, A. et al. · Brain (2021)
Zamani, A., Carhart-Harris, R. L., Christoff, K. · Neuropsychopharmacology (2021)
Castelhano, J. M., Lima, G. M., Teixeira, M. et al. · Frontiers in Pharmacology (2021)
Luke, D., Lungu, L., Friday, R. et al. · Human Psychopharmacology (2021)
Jobst, B. M., Atasoy, S., Ponce-Alvarez, A. et al. · NeuroImage (2021)
Aday, J. S., Bloesch, E. K., Wood, J. R. et al. · Reviews In The Neuroscience (2021)
Nichols, D. E., Walter, H. · Pharmacopsychiatry (2020)
Vollenweider, F. X., Preller, K. H. · Nature Reviews Neuroscience (2020)
Barrett, F. S., Krimmel, S. R., Griffiths, R. R. et al. · NeuroImage (2020)
Girn, M., Roseman, L., Bernhardt, B. et al. · Biorxiv (2020)
Wolff, M., Evens, R., Mertens, L. J. et al. · Frontiers in Psychiatry (2020)
Timmermann, C., Roseman, L., Schartner, M. et al. · Scientific Reports (2019)
Carhart-Harris, R. L., Friston, K. J. · Pharmacological Reviews (2019)
Russ, S. L., Carhart-Harris, R. L., Maruyama, G. et al. · Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice (2019)
Haijen, E. C. H. M., Kaelen, M., Roseman, L. et al. · Frontiers in Pharmacology (2018)
Timmermann, C., Spriggs, M. J., Kaelen, M. et al. · Neuropharmacology (2018)
Barrett, F. S., Preller, K. H., Kaelen, M. · International Review of Psychiatry (2018)
Timmermann, C., Roseman, L., Williams, L. et al. · Frontiers in Psychology (2018)
Carhart-Harris, R. L. · Neuropharmacology (2018)
Swanson, L. R. · Frontiers in Pharmacology (2018)
Moroz, M., Carhart-Harris, R. L. · IEEE Explore (2018)
Nichols, D. E. · ACS Chemical Neuroscience (2018)
Kaelen, M., Giribaldi, B., Raine, J. et al. · Psychopharmacology (2018)
Rucker, J., Iliff, J., Nutt, D. J. · Neuropharmacology (2017)
Carbonaro, T. M., Hurwitz, E., Johnson, M. W. · Psychopharmacology (2017)
Barrett, F. S., Preller, K. H., Herdener, M. et al. · Cerebral Cortex (2017)
Winkelman, M. J. · Frontiers in Neuroscience (2017)
Kaelen, M., Lorenz, R., Barrett, F. S. et al. · Biorxiv (2017)
Liechti, M. E. · Neuropsychopharmacology (2017)
Preller, K. H., Herdener, M., Pokorny, T. et al. · Current Biology (2017)
Preller, K. H., Vollenweider, F. X. · Behavioral Neurobiology of Psychedelic Drugs (2016)
Dos Santos, R. G., Osório, F. L., Crippa, J. A. et al. · Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews (2016)
Liechti, M. E., Dolder, P. C., Schmid, Y. · Psychopharmacology (2016)
McKenna, D., Riba, J. · Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences (2016)
Kometer, M., Vollenweider, F. X. · Behavioral Neurobiology of Psychedelic Drugs (2016)
Your Personal Research Library
Go Pro to save papers, add notes, rate studies, and organize your research into custom shelves.