In the world’s largest single-site acute-phase neuroimaging study to date, work led by CIFAR researcher Adeel Razi challenges the idea that psychedelics simply disrupt the brain

Psychedelics are a breakthrough area to treat severe depression, anxiety and addiction, but we still don’t fully understand how they work in the brain. Now, a team of researchers led by Adeel Razi (Monash University), a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar in the Brain, Mind & Consciousness program, challenges the earlier idea that psilocybin — the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms — simply disrupts the usual brain organization. In their study published in Nature, the team has found that this seemingly chaotic activity contains an underlying, organized structure. 

“We’re filling the gap in understanding how psychedelic states result in psychological change. While it may look chaotic, psilocybin leads to organized activity in people’s brains, especially for those who have a higher-quality experience. There’s a method to this madness,” Razi explains. 

His team administered 19 milligrams of psilocybin to 62 healthy participants within different contexts and monitored their brain activity using functional MRI, EEG and advanced machine-learning analyses, including AI models developed in Razi’s lab. 

Participants were observed in various settings, including while resting, listening to music, meditating or watching a movie. 

The study is the world’s largest single-site acute-phase neuroimaging study to date.

“This was an acute phase study where people were actually having these experiences while we looked into their brains in real time,” explains Razi. While people were having these psychedelic experiences, the researchers changed the participants’ contexts to see how their brain activity evolved and developed.

Participants’ experiences varied substantially from person to person, with people reporting vivid imagery, an altered sense of self, disembodiment and feelings of unity with their surroundings. Through the brain scans, the researchers observed that higher-quality, deeper psychedelic experiences were associated with more highly organized brain activity. The stronger the positively felt experience, the clearer this context-linked brain organization became. 

Razi says the findings provide a way to begin identifying what psychologically meaningful psychedelic experiences look like in the brain: a measurable pattern of brain activity that varies from person to person and tracks the quality of the experience. If they can identify this biological signature, they may be able to eventually predict how someone will respond to psilocybin based on their brain activity.

“If we can use AI and neuroimaging to measure these brain states in individuals, the longer-term goal is to understand who is responding, under what conditions, and eventually how treatment might be personalized for better health outcomes,” says Razi. 

CIFAR’s impact

The study is also co-authored by Anil K. Seth, Co-Director of the Brain, Mind & Consciousness program. Razi credits his collaborations across CIFAR, especially with leading researchers in the Brain, Mind & Consciousness and Learning in Machines & Brains programs, as well as financial support from the CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program, as foundational to this work. 

“The scientific environment and support provided by CIFAR are fundamental to the success of this research,” says Razi. 

Beyond financial support, the research community and opportunities provided through CIFAR have also proven invaluable to Razi. He has collaborated on multiple projects with researchers, including Learning in Machines & Brains program members Yoshua Bengio, Eva Dyer and more. 

“Working with Learning in Machines & Brains program members has been very valuable because my interests lie not only in studying the brain, but also in AI,” he explains. Moein Khajehnejad, one of the co-authors of the study and a Research Fellow in Razi’s Lab, developed some of the AI models utilized with partial support through CIFAR funding. 

CIFAR’s impact has also trickled down to Razi’s students, who have had opportunities to attend next-generation programming, including the CIFAR Neuroscience of Consciousness Winter School. 

“My students have hugely benefited from the opportunities like the Winter Schools. They had the opportunity to develop their networks, advance their research and take their own careers to the next level without financial strain, all thanks to CIFAR,” says Razi. The first author of the study, Devon Stoliker, attended the School in 2022, while still in the formative years of his PhD, and Khajehnejad attended the school in 2024. 

“I can’t express how much my lab and I have benefited from the CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program. Joint networking events with peers from other similar programs, including Jacobs CIFAR Research Fellows and Schmidt Science Fellows, as well as the annual CIFAR Global Scholars meetings and the plentiful opportunities for leadership development, are a few such examples. This program is very unique, and I feel very lucky to be part of it.”