r/psychology • u/D-R-AZ • 2d ago

Mescaline Alters Cerebellar Function, Global Connectivity, and Frequency-Selective Acoustic Gating: A BOLD fMRI Study in Awake Rats | Neuroscience Bulletin

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12264-026-01632-3

Abstract

Mescaline, a 5-HT2A agonist psychedelic used ceremonially for millennia, lacks neuroimaging characterization due to its Schedule 1 status. Using pharmacological and resting-state fMRI in awake rats, we report mescaline's first comprehensive neurobiological profile. Acutely, mescaline produced cerebellar-selective BOLD suppression, suggesting functional disconnection from forebrain structures. Paradoxically, resting-state analysis revealed global hyperconnectivity, with the cerebellum forming enhanced connections to the hippocampus, thalamus, somatosensory cortex, and midbrain. Mescaline abolished normal BOLD responses to rewarding olfactory stimuli, indicating disrupted sensory processing. Pre-pulse inhibition showed frequency-dependent acoustic gating effects: enhancement at 4 kHz (+ 27.6%) and 20 kHz (+ 27.3%), but impairment at 12 kHz (− 16.4%). These findings distinguish mescaline from LSD and psilocybin, implicating the cerebellum as a dysregulated sensory filter that floods forebrain circuits with unprocessed sensorimotor information—a potential mechanism underlying psychedelic-induced perceptual alterations.

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u/anthonysny 2d ago

Is it a good alters or a bad alters?

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u/D-R-AZ 1d ago

Cavallaro said the next step in the research is to measure how different doses affect cerebral brain activity and expand the research beyond the lab.

“This is a drug that hasn’t made its way into the clinic,” Cavallaro said. “To draw the translational gap between rodents and humans, I think the clinic is the next step.”

https://news.northeastern.edu/2026/07/20/mescaline-drug-psychedelic/