Fred Barrett

Fred Barrett

@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

May we live in less interesting times. Shih Yin Professor @HopkinsMedicine; Director @JHPsychedelics; Psych & Behavioral Sciences, @HopkinsNeuro, Psych & Brain Sciences; Opinions my own, generated by an organic neural network.

1.2K followers501 following92 posts

Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

Amazing recognition for a remarkable advancement that has fueled modern neuroscience. Congrats to all!

NPR@npr.org

The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to three scientists working on the mechanisms the brain uses to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells. n.pr/4rNyBD2

n.prNobel medicine prize goes to 3 scientists for research into brain activityThe Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to three scientists working on the mechanisms the brain uses to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells.

Fred Barrett reposted

Just Jack
@just-jack-1.bsky.social

Schmitt: Did you attend a concert wearing an anti-Trump shirt? Smith: I wore a “No Kings” shirt. It used to be a bipartisan American sentiment.

Fred Barrett reposted

Chaz Firestone
@chazfirestone.bsky.social

Out today! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

tal boger@talboger.bsky.social

Complexity is ubiquitous in the world around us. But different stimuli are complex for different reasons. Does the mind nevertheless represent a ‘unified’ notion of complexity across domains? In @nathumbehav.nature.com, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I show the answer is: yes! osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

This is a very small pilot, so caution is essential. But if these findings replicate, they could matter both for improving psychedelic clinical trial design and for understanding how cannabinoids alter consciousness under specific contextual conditions. 12/14

Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

Confirming THC as an active comparator that evokes mystical experiences (likely through dissociable molecular mechanisms in the brain) may also give us the chance to disentangle whether the "trip" is truly the "treatment" 13/14

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Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

It also puts data behind something that folks already have a general sense for: drug effects aren’t just pharmacology. Set and setting may substantially shape whether an experience is interpreted as “psychedelic-like.” 11/14

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Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

In some cases, THC wasn’t even identified as a cannabinoid. Notably, 25 mg dronabinol was mistaken for a classic hallucinogen by both a psychedelic-naive participant and a psychedelic-experienced participant. 9/14

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Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

We asked whether high-dose oral THC might help address the psychedelic blinding problem — and more broadly, whether THC can produce psychedelic-like effects when administered in the context of a typical psychedelic session. 6/14

Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

In this pilot study, 4 healthy adults (2 w/o psychedelic experience, all with THC experience) completed double-blind sessions with placebo, psilocybin (25 mg), and oral THC (25 mg; 2 ppl also received 50 mg THC). THC was given as either dronabinol or cannabis distillate. 7/14

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Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

Also, the timing of drug effects after high doses of oral THC closely match those of high-dose psilocybin, and some acute subjective effects of high-dose oral THC (disorientation, panic, paranoia, nausea) can be encountered with high-dose psychedelics 5/14

Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

Why this matters: psychedelic trials have a serious blinding problem. Participants and staff can often tell who got the psychedelic (or as @TheBorisLab likes to put it, “who got the good thing” or "who received the intervention that is expected to yield benefit") 2/14

Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

"Functional unblinding", or being able to guess what experimental condition you are in based on what you've experienced, makes it harder to separate true drug effects from expectancy effects in most psychedelic clinical trials 3/14

Fred Barrett reposted

Adeel Razi
@adeelrazi.bsky.social

Our new paper in @natureportfolio.nature.com. Psychedelics don’t simply disorder the brain. We found hidden, context-sensitive organisation beneath the apparent chaos -- strongest in people reporting more positive, profound experiences and a reduced sense of separation from the world. 🧵👇

Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

reality check #2: do prospective grad students really need to have co-authored papers to be competitive? perspectives have differed widely when sampling a few local colleagues. It's clear they can be helpful, but the question is whether they are truly necessary ...

Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

reality check: do prospective grad students really need to have first-authored papers to be competitive? perspectives have differed widely when sampling a few local colleagues. It's clear they can be sufficient, but the question is whether they are truly necessary ...

Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

check out the first paper published in our “Lost Foundations” special issue of Psychedelic Medicine, by none other than the inimitable @alexkwan.bsky.social props to @nate-h-heller.bsky.social for the stellar idea for the issue, and editors Chuck Nichols and Peter Hendricks for the support!!

Alex Kwan@alexkwan.bsky.social

For those interested in the history of psychedelic research… I wrote a narrative piece describing studies of psychedelic effects on serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe, from late 1960s to 1980s: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

journals.sagepub.comDorsal Raphe Revisited: A Systems Neuroscience Lens on Psychedelic Drug Action - Alex C. Kwan, 2026Psychedelics rose to prominence in the 1960s, around the same time when neurobiologists identified the midbrain raphe as the brain’s primary source of serotonin...
Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

Grateful to be involved in this important work. Props to Manesh Girn and Danilo Bzdok for leading! Hoping that folks read carefully and critically: notably, substantial between-drug differences challenge the primacy of "THE" psychedelic experience.

Manoj Doss not exist@manojdoss.bsky.social

This paper has been a long time coming. Instead of reanalyzing the same old resting-state fMRI datasets, we combined nearly all datasets around the world. Note that we didn't exactly find indisputable evidence for "default mode network disintegration." www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comAn international mega-analysis of psychedelic drug effects on brain circuit function - Nature MedicineAnalysis of neuroimaging datasets across five major psychedelics revealed a shared brain signature and provides a comprehensive insight into how these drugs reorganize brain architecture.
Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

Hey BlueScienceSky ... what's up with Neurosynth? Is it dormant, hibernating, deprecated, or now fully unsupported? It's been a minute since I visited, and sorting by year in the "studies" page shows that the most recent study is from 2018. Help!

Fred Barrett reposted

Nate Heller
@nate-h-heller.bsky.social

🧠 New Psychedelic Article in Schizophrenia Bulletin! We argue that visual hallucinations in psychedelics and Lewy body disease may share common mechanisms ⇒ visual degradation & cortical excitation. academic.oup.com/schizophreni... Excited to see this spark discussion! #Neuroscience #Psychedelics

academic.oup.comVisual Hallucinations in Serotonergic Psychedelics and Lewy Body DiseasesAbstractBackground and Hypothesis. Visual hallucinations (VH) are a core symptom of both Lewy body diseases (LBDs; eg, Parkinson’s disease and dementia wit

Fred Barrett reposted

Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Center
@jhpsychedelics.bsky.social

How do psychedelics help treat depression, anxiety, and addiction? In this #ECNP2025 preview, Drs. Linda Simmler and Frederick Barrett discuss psychedelic-induced plasticity with host Friederike Holze. 📅 See them live Oct 14, 2025, 8:40–10:00 🎧 www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FT2...

youtube.comPsychedelics and plasticity: from synapses to cognition | 38th ECNP Congress previewYouTube video by European College of Neuropsychopharmacology

Fred Barrett reposted

Alt National Park Service
@altnps.bsky.social

Today, Trump declared war on his own citizens, calling for U.S. cities to be used as “training grounds” for troops to confront what he called an “invasion from within.” Americans are a proud people, and no one (foreign or domestic) will threaten our home.

Fred Barrett
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social

great work with Megan Hosein, Zach Cordner, and the NNDC Task group on psychedelics and related compounds - grateful to co-chair with @TrishaSuppesMD

Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Center@jhpsychedelics.bsky.social

1/ New consensus statement just dropped on the potential for psilocybin in clinical care, from the Task Group on Psychedelics and Related Compounds of the US National Network of Depression Centers The message? Lots of promise, but real risks if we rush. 🧵 authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

authors.elsevier.comScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.

Fred Barrett reposted

BaltimorePsychedelic Society
@bps920.bsky.social

Pride isn’t a month it’s choosing authenticity every day. The rainbow flags represent decades of people who refused to hide. Your existence is already an act of courage. 🏳️‍🌈​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Happy pride month !

Fred Barrett reposted

Russ Poldrack
@russpoldrack.org

I'm a member of the NIMH BSC. The members who were fired are outstanding scientists, which is why they were appointed to the BSC in the first place. Their firing for unspecified reasons is unconscionable.

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social

At least four neuroscientists received termination letters this week dismissing them from NIH advisory boards. “This is unusual and unprecedented,” says @thebalelab.bsky.social, one of the terminated board members. By @callimcflurry.bsky.social @avaskham.bsky.social #neuroskyence bit.ly/4hM0Xa3

thetransmitter.orgActing NIH director dismisses four neuroscientists from advisory boardsThe letters they received this week did not include a reason for their termination.

Fred Barrett reposted

Adeel Razi
@adeelrazi.bsky.social

🧵 How do psychedelics shape brain activity? Our new paper presents the largest neuroimaging study of psilocybin to date—revealing how context structures psychedelic brain states. Title: Psychedelics Align Brain Activity with Context Paper: lnkd.in/gt-kMR6d A thread 🧵👇 1/n

Fred Barrett reposted

Adam Kinzinger
@adamkinzinger.substack.com

For the democrats saying “we can’t let the govt shut down” you’ve already lost. It’s not on you. Republicans control everything, didn’t come to you for anything except your vote. Where else can you force changes? You can’t… you’re a willing participant in Republican majority