Tuesday June 20, 2023 9:00am – 5:00pm MDT

Additional registration fee applies.

Classic psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) have recaptured the imagination of both science and popular culture, and may have efficacy in treating a wide range of psychiatric disorders. Human and animal studies of psychedelic drug action are demonstrating interesting and unique effects of psychedelics on brain function at many levels, from cellular and molecular to brain circuits and brain networks. This class will provide a brief introduction to a number of concepts in basic and cognitive neuroscience, followed by an overview and tour of the state of the science of psychedelic drug effects in the brain. We will introduce a number of circuit models that have evolved to try to explain the impact of psychedelic drugs on neural systems. We will describe these models and discuss gaps in knowledge, inconsistencies in the literature and extensions of these models. Together, these three models may explain many phenomena of the psychedelic experience, and using the framework of these models, future research may help to delineate the functional specificity of each circuit to the action of both classic and atypical psychedelics.