Exploring mechanisms of psychedelic action using neuroimaging

Modern psychedelic research and clinical development is at a crucial inflection point, with great potential for the treatment of many mental illnesses demonstrated but significant questions that remain unresolved. Neuroimaging has been pivotal in the modern era of psychedelic research, providing crucial insights into the acute effects of these drugs that revealed translational, clinical potential. Here we review this evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography and magnetoencephalography/electroencephalography studies and describe how these findings inform computational models of both the acute action of psychedelics and their longer-term therapeutic effects. This approach, based on multi-modal neuroimaging, provides a solid evidence base for these therapies as they move forwards, as well as a fuller understanding of the powerful effects of psychedelics on the phenomenology of human consciousness.