Back

Psilocybin reshapes cortical inhibition through selective interneuron recruitment

Davoudian, P. A.; Jiang, Q.; Knox, C. A.; Savalia, N. K.; Shao, L.-X.; Wilson, J.; Weiner, A. M.; Chong, C. W.; Liao, C.; Nothnagel, J. D.; Sakurai, T.; Kwan, A. C.

2026-04-17 neuroscience
10.64898/2026.04.16.718963 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Psychedelics show therapeutic potential for treating psychiatric disorders. While studies have emphasized the roles of cortical pyramidal cells, GABAergic neurons also express serotonin receptors and are therefore likely targets of psychedelics. In this study, we determine the effect of psilocybin on the activity dynamics of major GABAergic cell types in the mouse medial frontal cortex. Psilocybin reduces the firing of somatostatin-expressing interneurons, but increases the activity of parvalbumin-expressing interneurons. This cell type-specific response is unlikely to involve vasoactive intestinal peptide-expressing interneurons. Instead, pharmacological blockade and conditional knockout experiments demonstrate that psilocybin acts on the 5-HT1A receptor at SST interneurons, which contributes to the drugs long-term behavioral effects. Collectively, the results reveal that the classic psychedelic psilocybin alters cortical inhibition in a cell type-specific manner.

Matching journals

The top 3 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

1
Molecular Psychiatry
242 papers in training set
Top 0.1%
22.1%
2
Neuropsychopharmacology
134 papers in training set
Top 0.1%
22.1%
3
Biological Psychiatry
119 papers in training set
Top 0.6%
6.2%
50% of probability mass above
4
The Journal of Neuroscience
928 papers in training set
Top 3%
4.8%
5
Neuropharmacology
60 papers in training set
Top 0.2%
4.8%
6
Translational Psychiatry
219 papers in training set
Top 1%
4.8%
7
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
2130 papers in training set
Top 21%
3.5%
8
eLife
5422 papers in training set
Top 31%
2.7%
9
Cell Reports
1338 papers in training set
Top 22%
1.8%
10
ACS Chemical Neuroscience
60 papers in training set
Top 1%
1.7%
11
Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science
54 papers in training set
Top 0.7%
1.7%
12
Nature Communications
4913 papers in training set
Top 52%
1.7%
13
Scientific Reports
3102 papers in training set
Top 65%
1.3%
14
eneuro
389 papers in training set
Top 7%
1.3%
15
Science Advances
1098 papers in training set
Top 27%
0.9%
16
British Journal of Pharmacology
34 papers in training set
Top 0.5%
0.8%
17
European Neuropsychopharmacology
15 papers in training set
Top 0.6%
0.7%
18
Communications Biology
886 papers in training set
Top 30%
0.6%
19
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
105 papers in training set
Top 3%
0.6%
20
Neurotherapeutics
11 papers in training set
Top 0.7%
0.6%
21
NeuroImage
813 papers in training set
Top 7%
0.6%
22
iScience
1063 papers in training set
Top 38%
0.6%
23
International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
11 papers in training set
Top 0.4%
0.6%