Psilocybin and Default Mode Network Connectivity
The default mode network supports self-referential and narrative-self processing, and its disruption under psychedelics has been proposed as a substrate of ego dissolution and self-transcendent experience. This secondary analysis of the open PsiConnect dataset tests whether oral psilocybin acutely reduces internal connectivity within that network, and whether prior mindfulness training moderates that effect.
Research question
Does oral psilocybin acutely reduce the internal coherence of the default mode network, measured during the drug session relative to a baseline session, and does prior participation in an eight-week mindfulness-based program moderate that acute effect? Psilocybin exposure is administered within-subject, comparing each participant’s own baseline and drug sessions. Mindfulness training is a between-subject, randomized manipulation: participants were assigned to an eight-week mindfulness program or to a no-intervention control before the psilocybin session.
Current findings
Within-network default-mode connectivity decreased from the baseline to the psilocybin session across the pooled sample—a medium-sized effect that held under nonparametric testing, after adjusting for the modest increase in head motion during the drug session, and after excluding high-motion participants. The reduction was statistically reliable in the control arm and directionally consistent but weaker in the mindfulness arm; the two arms did not differ, so the result is read as no detected moderation by mindfulness training rather than evidence of equivalence.
Scope note
This analysis tests an acute pharmacological effect on network connectivity; it does not measure, and makes no claim about, religious or mystical experience. Its relevance to RCC's program is the default mode network's role in self-referential processing and in theoretical accounts of self-transcendence and ego dissolution.
Limitations
The connectivity measure is global and collapses across default-mode subregions; the design is not counterbalanced, so drug effects cannot be fully separated from session order; the sample is modest; and, as a secondary analysis, it inherits the acquisition and preprocessing choices of the original study. The absolute effect is small.
Outputs
A manuscript reporting the pre/post effect, arm comparison, motion controls, and sensitivity analyses is in preparation. Analysis code and derived connectivity values will be shared publicly alongside publication.
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