27/12/2025
Magic mushrooms may literally rewire depressed brains, breaking stubborn negative thought loops.
A new study suggests psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, may alleviate depression by physically rewiring brain circuits that sustain negative thought loops.
Using a genetically engineered rabies virus as a tracer, researchers led by Quan Jiang and Alex Kwan at Cornell University mapped how a single dose of psilocybin altered neural connections one week later.
They found that brain regions involved in processing sensory information became more strongly connected to areas that guide actions, while certain internal cortical connections—linked in humans to ruminative, self-reinforcing negative thinking—were weakened. This pattern is consistent with clinical observations that psilocybin can disrupt rigid, depressive mental habits and promote more flexible patterns of thought and behavior.
The study also indicates that ongoing brain activity helps determine where psilocybin-driven rewiring occurs, raising the possibility of combining psychedelics with techniques such as magnetic brain stimulation to more precisely target specific neural circuits. While the findings offer a mechanistic explanation for psilocybin’s promising antidepressant effects in human trials, the work was conducted in mice, and not all rodent results translate directly to people, so further human-focused research is needed. Still, the results support the broader hypothesis that psychedelics relieve depression not just by acutely altering consciousness, but by inducing lasting structural changes in brain networks associated with rumination and mood regulation.
References (APA style)
Jiang, Q., et al. (2025). Psilocybin breaks depressive thought cycles by rewiring cortical circuits in mice. *Cell*.
Koumoundouros, T. (2025, December 16). Psilocybin breaks depressive cycles by rewiring the brain, study suggests. *ScienceAlert*.
