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25.04.2026, Saturday, 12:00-13:30
Psychedelic science is undergoing a renaissance—one driven not only by striking clinical outcomes, but also by rapid advances in molecular neuroscience, computational methods, and behavioral analytics. This symposium brings together perspectives spanning clinical research, preclinical behavioral profiling, and molecular and circuit-level mapping of psychedelic drug action. Together, these viewpoints outline how different layers of the brain’s organization contribute to understanding why psychedelics work, how they reshape neural dynamics, and what this means for future psychiatric care.
At the clinical front, we will consider emerging evidence for psychedelic-assisted treatments across mood, anxiety, and substance-use disorders, with particular emphasis on the practical realities of translating such interventions into established healthcare systems. Psychedelics appear to act as catalysts of psychological and neurobiological flexibility, yet the path from controlled studies to scalable, ethically grounded therapies remains complex. Examples drawn from national healthcare initiatives highlight how clinical infrastructures might adapt to responsibly accommodate these treatments.
Complementing this translational outlook, the symposium will examine how preclinical research is reshaping our ability to quantify and interpret psychedelic effects. Machine-learning–based behavioral analysis and high-resolution tracking are revealing multidimensional, dose-dependent signatures of drug action, while spatial transcriptomics provides unprecedented insight into how psychedelics alter gene-expression landscapes across subcortical regions involved in emotion, stress, and reward. Integrating these datasets opens new possibilities for developing predictive frameworks for psychedelic pharmacology.
Building on these mechanistic perspectives, we will also explore how psychedelics engage specific neural circuits underlying behavioral flexibility. Striatal microcircuit studies using in vivo calcium imaging and targeted pharmacological approaches reveal how serotonergic modulation influences activity patterns within decision-making pathways. These findings offer a circuit-level view of how psychedelics might alter adaptive behavior, linking molecular action to changes in action selection.
Finally, affective neuroscience adds an essential layer to this multidimensional picture. By investigating how psychedelics modulate emotional processing in socially relevant contexts—such as ultrasonic vocalization–based assessments of positive affect—we gain insight into how these compounds shape reward sensitivity, social motivation, and individual variability in behavioral responses.
Taken together, the symposium will provide a cross-disciplinary platform for discussing how insights from molecules, circuits, behavior, and clinical practice can converge to shape the next generation of psychedelic science and its responsible translation into medicine.
Imperial College London - Centre for Psychedelic Research & CIPPRes Clinic, Division of Psychiatry, Dpt of Brain Sciences
"Psychedelic Therapy - Promise, Neuropsychological Mechanisms and Possible Roadmap to Clinical Practice"
As evidence grows for psychedelic therapy across conditions such as depression, addiction, and eating disorders, a new question emerges: how do we responsibly integrate these treatments into existing healthcare frameworks? In this talk, Dr David Erritzoe will begin with an overview of the field - from the psychological and neurobiological role of psychedelics as catalysts of flexibility in “stuck” brain networks, to key findings from recent clinical trials. He will then turn to the practical realities of implementation, exploring what healthcare systems can do now to prepare for the coming wave of psychedelic therapies. Drawing on the example of new ketamine service pilots in the UK NHS system, David will illustrate how collaboration between public health systems and emerging treatments could offer a balanced and scalable route forward - expanding access while building the evidence base within existing care structures.
Scilifelab, Stockholm University, Stockholm
"Integrated Behavioral and Molecular Analysis of Psilocybin Effects in C57BL/6 WT Mice"
Dr. Jakub Mlost will give insight into preclinical characterization of dose-dependent effects of psychedelic with state-of-the-art computational and molecular tools. His most recent research has focused on application of unsupervised machine learning tools for deconvolution of animal behavior. He has also performed a characterization of molecular effects of different doses of psilocybin in multiple subcortical brain regions such as amygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus, lateral habenula, hippocampus and caudate putamen using spatial transcriptomics. This study aims to integrate behavioral and molecular analyses in the same animals to establish correlations between psilocybin-induced behavioral alterations and corresponding gene expression patterns in key brain regions. He aims to develop a computational pipeline allowing for the prediction of behavioral patterns of drugs based on the interplay of molecular neural architecture and pharmacology. This may pave the way for new methods for testing novel neuropsychiatric drugs and precision medicine.
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm
"A Striosomal Mechanism for Psychedelic-Induced Suppression of Selective Compulsive-Like Behaviours"
Vasiliki Skara will present new insights into how psychedelics influence striatal circuitry involved in behavioral flexibility and decision-making. Her work focuses on the striosome compartment, defined by Oprm1 expression, and its sensitivity to serotonergic modulation through the 5-HT2A receptor. Using single-cell calcium imaging in freely behaving mice, she examined how administration of the psychedelic DOI (2,5-Dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine) alters activity patterns within striosomal neurons across distinct behavioral states. To test causality, DOI treatment was combined with cell-type-specific chronic modulation of Oprm1+ neurons, revealing their essential contribution to DOI-induced changes in behavior. Complementary in situ hybridization further identified compartment-specific transcriptional responses to DOI. Together, these findings position striosomes as a key substrate through which psychedelics can reshape adaptive behaviors, offering mechanistic insight into how serotonergic agents influence neural circuits relevant to psychiatric vulnerability.
Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences
"Distinct Behavioral and Ultrasonic Vocalization Profiles of DMT, Psilocybin, and LSD in Rats: A Translational Window into Psychedelic Action"
Wiktoria Zaniewska will give insight into the anti-addictive potential of classical psychedelics through preclinical assessment of their effects on affective states in rats. Her research has focused on a validated protocol combining social isolation periods with group encounters, during which animal behavior is recorded using a behavioral observation system and ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are collected as quantitative indices of emotional valence and arousal. Psychedelic compounds are administered following isolation periods to assess their ability to modulate positive emotional responses associated with rewarding social contact. By integrating high-resolution behavioral measures with USV-based affective readouts across both sexes and accounting for individual differences, this study aims to identify psychedelic doses that modulate reward processing through changes in affective components and to elucidate the role of individual and social context in the heterogeneous effects observed across different classical psychedelics.
[Affiliation]
"The Role of 5-HT2A Receptor in Sleep Architecture and Memory Consolidation in an Animal Model"
[Abstract]
