Speaker : Ewelina KNAPSKA, Necki Institute of Experimental Biology
"Psychedelics in context: chronic stress, social competition and recovery"
Psychedelics are increasingly being studied for their potential to produce lasting changes in mood and behaviour, but we still know relatively little about how their effects depend on the state of the brain at the time of treatment. In this talk, I will present our work in mice examining how stress and recovery from stress shape the effects of psilocybin and LSD.
Using a model of chronic stress, we studied changes in reward-related behaviour together with plasticity in an amygdala circuit involved in emotional and motivational processing. Chronic stress reduced reward consumption and weakened plasticity in this circuit. Psilocybin partially reversed these effects when given during ongoing stress. Surprisingly, however, when the animals were already recovering after the stress had ended, psilocybin interfered with the spontaneous recovery of both behaviour and brain plasticity.
I will also discuss a complementary model of social stress, in which competition between dominant males produces strong social hierarchies and frequent aggressive interactions. In this setting, LSD reduced chasing and altered social behaviour.
Together, these findings suggest that psychedelic effects are strongly context-dependent: the same treatment may have very different consequences during ongoing stress, social competition, or recovery. More broadly, the results highlight the importance of understanding the brain state in which psychedelic drugs act.
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Conference location
Please join the conference in Paris Brain Institute auditorium.