Publication
The emerging neuroscientific frontier of brain fingerprinting has recently established that human functional connectomes (FCs) exhibit fingerprint-like idiosyncratic features, which map onto heterogeneously distributed behavioral traits. Here, we harness brain-fingerprinting tools to extract FC features that predict subjective drug experience induced by the psychedelic psilocybin. Specifically, in neuroimaging data of healthy volunteers under the acute influence of psilocybin or a placebo, we show that, post psilocybin administration, FCs become more idiosyncratic owing to greater intersubject dissimilarity. Moreover, whereas in placebo subjects idiosyncratic features are primarily found in the frontoparietal network, in psilocybin subjects they concentrate in the default mode network (DMN). Crucially, isolating the latter revealed an FC pattern that predicts subjective psilocybin experience and is characterized by reduced within-DMN and DMN-limbic connectivity, as well as increased connectivity between the DMN and attentional systems. Overall, these results contribute to bridging the gap between psilocybin-mediated effects on brain and behavior, while demonstrating the value of a brain-fingerprinting approach to pharmacological neuroimaging.|The trending field of brain fingerprinting focuses on characterizing fingerprint-like idiosyncratic features of human functional connectomes (FCs), which have been shown to predict heterogeneously distributed behavioral traits. Here, we apply brain-fingerprinting methods to fMRI data from subjects who were administered the psychedelic psilocybin or a placebo. We find that, compared with the placebo condition, subjects under acute psilocybin effects exhibited more idiosyncratic FCs, with idiosyncratic features being largely concentrated in the default mode network (DMN). Furthermore, we isolated an idiosyncratic FC pattern that predicted reports of subjective psilocybin experiences. This pattern was characterized by altered DMN connectivity, specifically by reduced within-DMN and DMN-limbic connectivity, and increased connectivity between the DMN and attentional systems. This work paves the way for exciting new research harnessing pharmacological brain fingerprinting.