The brain is a building with a strict chain of command. At the ‘bottom’ are frontline workers – the regions that handle raw sensory input. At the ‘top’ are the parts responsible for abstract thought, memory, and our internal sense of self. Usually, these two groups don’t talk to each other directly.
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For decades, people using psychedelics have described a feeling where the line between ‘me’ and the world vanishes. While it is clear these drugs cause intense shifts in vision and thought, scientists have struggled to pin down exactly what the brain is doing.
A new multi-centric study published in Nature Medicine on April 6 has suggested the answer isn’t found in a single centre such as the thalamus or amygdala but that it arises from a total reorganisation of how different brain areas talk to one another.
Published – May 11, 2026 07:30 am IST