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#Psilocybin🍄 shifts visual cortex dynamics towards a state of surprise! Thrilled to share our work w/ OpenScope at @alleninstitute.org lead by postdoc @roberto-defilippo.bsky.social. We combined visual change detection w/ Neuropixels recordings in mice to uncover how psilocybin changes circuits 1/

2/ We found a striking behavioral effect: psilocybin reduced change-detection performance to chance, without causing obvious motor deficits. At the same time, visual stimuli drove a strong 4-Hz oscillation across visual cortex, especially in VISp and SST interneurons.

3/ Surprisingly, despite this oscillation, image id encoding was completely intact! By contrast, this oscillation was closely linked to CHANGE encoding, pushing visual cortex dynamics in SST interneurons towards states usually associated with surprise.

4/ Unexpectedly, psilocybin's effect were not global or uniform but dependent on the image structure: Only images with long, continuous contours recruited change-encoding neurons that were modulated by psilocybin.

5/ Our findings point to a previously unrecognized role for SST interneurons in the acute psychedelic state, potentially linking altered surprise signals to visual distortions. A huge thank-you to the entire OpenScope team, especially @jeromelecoq.bsky.social, for making this work possible!