All 15

Topics

Psychedelics 10 Neuroscience 11 Methods 6 Phenomenology 7 Therapy 3 Mental health 2 Sleep 1 Self 3 Body 2 Pharmacology 4 Meditation 2 Computation 2 Cognition 2 DMT 1 Policy 1 Naturalistic 1 Anthropology 2 Classification 1

Cardiac responses to sounds: insights on the embodiment of sleep functions

Matthieu Koroma

SleepBodyNeuroscience

Abstract

This talk uses cardiac responses to sounds as a window into the embodied side of sleep. It asks how bodily physiology can help characterize sleep functions, responsiveness to the environment, and the changing relation between sensory processing and conscious experience during sleep.

Speaker biography

Matthieu Koroma is an ALIUS researcher and editor whose work addresses sleep, dreaming, and conscious experience. His research and editorial work bring sleep science into conversation with broader questions about non-ordinary states of consciousness.

Extended difficulties following the use of psychedelic drugs

Shayam Suseelan

PsychedelicsTherapyMental healthPhenomenology

Abstract

Psychedelic substances have attracted attention for their therapeutic promise and their relevance to the science of mind, but research on longer-lasting negative effects remains limited. This presentation introduces the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences project, a mixed-methods study of post-trip difficulties including anxiety, insomnia, dissociation, existential distress, and fears of lasting psychological damage.

The talk outlines a taxonomy of challenges and coping strategies, with attention to the support systems and clinical frameworks needed to respond to adverse psychedelic experiences responsibly.

Speaker biography

Shayam Suseelan is a PhD candidate at King’s College London and University College London. His research focuses on LSD, time perception, and altered states using fMRI, MEG, microphenomenology, and experience sampling. He is also involved in the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences project.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy: from research to policy implementation

Helena Aicher

PsychedelicsTherapyPolicy

Abstract

This lecture traces the development of psychedelic-assisted therapy in Switzerland, from early research leadership in the 1990s to contemporary clinical practice. It discusses exceptional permits for the therapeutic use of LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin, the training work of the Swiss Medical Association for Psychedelic Therapy, and the clinical and ethical challenges of scaling psychedelic care.

Speaker biography

Dr. Helena Aicher is a postdoctoral researcher working on ayahuasca-inspired formulations and processes in psychedelic-assisted therapy. She also practices as a therapist in regulated contexts involving LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA, and contributes to therapist training through SÄPT with a focus on theory, practice, and ethics.

Subjective and therapeutic effects of psychedelics

David E. Olson & David B. Yaden

PsychedelicsTherapyMental healthPharmacologyPhenomenologyNeuroscience

Abstract

This ALIUS discussion asks whether the subjective effects of psychedelics are necessary for enduring therapeutic benefit. Yaden and Griffiths’ view emphasizes mystical and other acute experiences as contributors to long-lasting therapeutic outcomes, while Olson’s companion view emphasizes psychoplastogenic mechanisms that may produce benefit independently of subjective effects. The conversation clarifies the two positions and the points of contact between them.

Related ALIUS Bulletin piece: Are the subjective effects of psychedelics necessary for their enduring therapeutic effects?

DOI: 10.34700/0v21-5n82

Speaker biography

David E. Olson is affiliated with the Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, and Center for Neuroscience at UC Davis. David B. Yaden is affiliated with the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins University. The ALIUS Bulletin conversation was hosted by George Fejer.

Cinco sins of psychedelic research

Manoj Doss

PsychedelicsMethodsCognitionPharmacology

Abstract

This talk reviews recurring methodological and interpretive problems in psychedelic research, including how personal experience, researcher expectations, measurement choices, and weak behavioral tasks can shape scientific conclusions. It argues for a closer integration of cognitive psychology, neuropharmacology, and experimentally grounded behavioral measurement.

Speaker biography

Manoj Doss is a cognitive neuropsychopharmacologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin. His work examines acute and persisting effects of psychoactive drugs on cognition and brain function, with particular attention to hallucinogens and episodic memory.

Mapping neural dynamics to experience dynamics in a dose-response study of DMT

Evan Lewis-Healy

PsychedelicsDMTNeurosciencePhenomenologyMethods

Abstract

This presentation examines the temporal dynamics of DMT experience across dose conditions and relates fine-grained subjective reports to EEG measures. It considers changes in valence, visual imagery, time experience, and self-dissolution, and asks how neural markers such as entropy and alpha power can track unfolding experiential structure.

Speaker biography

Evan Lewis-Healy is a researcher in the Cambridge Consciousness and Cognition Lab. His work combines detailed subjective reports with EEG and other measures to study non-ordinary states, including psychedelic and breathwork-induced experiences.

Waves beyond waveforms: (mis)interpretation of alpha waves in cognitive neuroscience

Tzvetan Popov

NeuroscienceMethodsCognition

Abstract

Alpha rhythms are often treated as cognitive components, but this talk challenges that habit of interpretation. It asks how brain rhythms may coordinate perception, action, and sensorimotor control, and how thinking beyond waveform labels can change the way cognitive neuroscience explains collective neural behavior.

Speaker biography

Tzvetan Popov studies dominant brain rhythms and clinical psychophysiology. His research spans EEG, MEG, and cognitive neuroscience, with academic appointments and collaborations in Konstanz, Zurich, and the Donders Institute.

What pharmacological principles teach us about psychedelic drug action

Tobias Buchborn

PsychedelicsPharmacologyNeuroscience

Abstract

This talk introduces pharmacological principles that matter for psychedelic science, including pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, metabolism, receptor binding, and 5-HT2A signaling. It also considers topics such as endogenous DMT, near-death experiences, microdosing, and the translation of psychedelic mechanisms into therapeutic research.

Speaker biography

Tobias Buchborn is a researcher in neurobiology and psychopharmacology. His work has addressed LSD models, 5-HT2A receptor regulation, and the therapeutic applicability of psychedelic drugs, including research at Imperial College London and the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim.

Meditation, psychedelics, and the self: a neurophenomenological approach

Aviva Berkovich-Ohana

MeditationPsychedelicsSelfNeurosciencePhenomenology

Abstract

This presentation brings meditation and psychedelic experience into a shared neurophenomenological frame. It examines transformations of the sense of self, the relation between first-person reports and neural measures, and the ways contemplative and pharmacological practices can illuminate the structure of self-consciousness.

Speaker biography

Aviva Berkovich-Ohana is an associate professor of neuroscience at the University of Haifa, affiliated with the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center and the Department of Counseling and Human Development. Her research investigates neurophenomenological processes underlying the sense of self across meditation, psychedelics, channeling, and lucid dreaming.

Peripersonal space as an interface for self-environment interactions

Andrea Serino

BodySelfNeuroscienceComputation

Abstract

Peripersonal space is the zone immediately surrounding the body where external cues and bodily signals are integrated. This talk presents peripersonal space as an interface for action, social interaction, and self-consciousness, and discusses neural and computational mechanisms that shape body-environment relations across development, sleep, and altered states.

Speaker biography

Andrea Serino is head of the MySpace Lab, an SNSF professor at the University Hospital of Lausanne, Head of Neuroscience at MindMaze, and an invited professor at EPFL’s Center for Neuroprosthetics. His work studies the neural and cognitive basis of body and self experience in space.

Making sense of psychedelics action on brain and behavior in naturalistic settings

Maria Balaet

PsychedelicsNaturalisticMethodsNeuroscience

Abstract

Naturalistic psychedelic studies make it possible to examine brain, behavior, context, and subjective experience outside tightly controlled laboratory settings. This talk considers how such data can be organized and interpreted, and how naturalistic methods can complement experimental approaches to psychedelic action.

Speaker biography

Maria Balaet works at the intersection of psychedelic science, behavior, and brain research. Her work addresses how naturalistic settings can be studied without losing analytic clarity about mechanisms, individual differences, and lived context.

Making invisible friends: tulpamancy, prayer, and the fluidity of self

Michael Lifshitz

SelfAnthropologyPhenomenologyMeditation

Abstract

Tulpamancy is a practice in which people cultivate vivid invisible companions called tulpas. Drawing on phenomenological interviews, ethnography, and neuroimaging, this talk explores tulpamancy, prayer, and related imagination-based practices as ways of studying agency, selfhood, and the fluid boundaries of subjectivity.

Speaker biography

Michael Lifshitz is an assistant professor in Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University and the Jewish General Hospital. His work combines phenomenology, neuroscience, and ethnography to study meditation, hypnosis, placebo effects, prayer, psychedelics, and agency.

The Neuroanthropology of Hallucinogenic Experiences: Beyond nativism and culturalism

Martin E. Fortier · Feb 11, 2019

PsychedelicsAnthropologyPhenomenologyNeurosciencePharmacology

Abstract

When taken at high enough doses, hallucinogens can induce a large range of hallucinations involving people, animals, artefacts, elves, spirits, chimeras, and other contents. This lecture asks where these contents come from and examines two influential answers: culturalism, which treats hallucinatory content as reconfigured environmental stimuli, and nativism, which attributes content to evolutionarily inherited modules or archetypes.

Fortier argues that both views are undermined by neurobiological models of hallucination, the diversity of receptoromes, and cross-cultural descriptions of hallucinogenic experience. He proposes a constructivist model integrating anthropology, biology, and neuropharmacology, including non-genetic and non-cultural processes such as prenatal spontaneous activity and neural selection.

Speaker biography

Martin E. Fortier was affiliated with the Institut Jean Nicod, Department of Cognitive Studies, ENS, Paris, and the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, EHESS, Paris. His work brought anthropology, philosophy, and cognitive science into conversation around hallucinogenic experience and altered states of consciousness.

Classification schemes of altered states of consciousness

Larry Fort and Timo Torsten Schmidt

ClassificationPhenomenologyMethodsNeuroscience

Abstract

This review surveys classification schemes for altered states of consciousness, grouping them by whether they organize ASCs through subjective experience, induction method, or neurophysiological mechanism. It compares these approaches as tools for linking ASC induction, phenomenology, and neural correlates, and proposes clusters of state-based concepts for future basic and clinical research.

Read the paper: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/pmuqt

Speaker biography

Larry Fort is a PhD student at the University of Liège, where he works in the Physiology of Cognition lab as part of the GIGA-Cyclotron Research Center. His research examines the phenomenological, neurobiological, and physiological underpinnings of altered states of consciousness.

Timo Torsten Schmidt is a postdoctoral researcher at the Freie Universität Berlin. His work uses computational cognitive neuroscience and functional neuroimaging to study consciousness content, mental imagery, and altered states, including meta-analytic work with the Altered States Database.

How should we study the effects of psychedelic drugs?

Enzo Tagliazucchi

PsychedelicsMethodsNeuroscienceComputation

Abstract

This lecture asks whether psychedelic drug effects can be studied within the standard paradigm of cognitive neuroscience. It considers links between neuroimaging and subjective reports, the scientific use of microdosing, natural language processing for psychedelic experience reports, and new quantitative methods for characterizing complex human behavior under psychedelics.

Speaker biography

Enzo Tagliazucchi studied physics and mathematics at the University of Buenos Aires and obtained a PhD in physics at Goethe University Frankfurt. He leads the Consciousness, Culture and Complexity Group at the University of Buenos Aires, is a Professor of Neuroscience at Favaloro University, and studies human consciousness as embedded within society and culture.