My first foray into public scientific writing published in @psyche.co. Based on this paper with @robincarhartharris.bsky.social, @marcoaqil.bsky.social, and Selen Atasoy. Hope you enjoy 🙂

Psyche Magazine@psyche.co · 3w ago

Carl Jung’s archetypes have long been dismissed as unscientific – but what if they are real, having emerged as part of our evolutionary journey? In this bold Idea, the researcher Hugh McGovern lays out the results from recent trials exploring archetypes through psychedelic drugs

Carl Jung’s archetypes have long been dismissed as unscientific – but what if they are real, having emerged as part of our evolutionary journey? In this bold Idea, the researcher Hugh McGovern lays out the results from recent trials exploring archetypes through psychedelic drugs

Jung’s archetypes are a mirror that shows who and what we are | Psyche Ideas

Psychedelics and neuroscience seem to support his ideas about ancestral dreams and fears – but with an evolutionary twist

buff.ly

We should pay peer reviewers Paying reviewers led to faster decisions—an average of 5.5 working days vs 38 days for unpaid reviews And review quality improved (judged by handling editors) Reviewers who delivered a good peer review in 4 days were paid $290 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

It’s 43 minutes past midnight. This is downtown Oslo.

Patricia Aas 🐢🏳️‍🌈@patigallardo.bsky.social · last mo.

I think maybe tomorrow is canceled

Looking Up - From Bill (ridingrobots.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2nBAHhe

Very interesting sounding paper on the role of the default mode network in visual perception by Ujhelyi, Korda & Zaretskaya. The authors propose that the DMN provides top-down information from memory and semantic knowledge to guide perception. #neuroskyence

The contribution of default mode network areas to visual perception

Visual perception and accompanying sensory activity are strongly shaped by top-down influences. Although several sources of this influence have been thoroughly examined in the research literature, one...

cell.com

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/...

Dorsal Raphe Revisited: A Systems Neuroscience Lens on Psychedelic Drug Action - Alex C. Kwan, 2026

Psychedelics rose to prominence in the 1960s, around the same time when neurobiologists identified the midbrain raphe as the brain’s primary source of serotonin...

journals.sagepub.com

I don't use Google search — the AI summaries are not good enough however, simple question: how accurate of answers do you think the average Google user would get from reading the top search results? how much higher than 91% do you think they would be?

Futurism@futurism.com · 4mo ago

This is catastrophic.

Good to see this paper out. We propose a novel (and I must say speculative) neurocognitive account of complex PTSD using predictive processing, and discuss why MDMA therapy may be well suited to complex PTSD.

It's seen three US presidencies, is older than my kindergartener, but it's finally out there. Great to see this published and it was a lot of fun working on it with some great friends 🎉 doi.org/10.1177/1029...

Almost 5 years ago now, when we were little PhD students, a group of us had a paper idea. We huddled together in our cramped office meeting room to write an early version of this paper. MANY iterations later, we're all now postdocs, and the paper is now out! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Exploring geographic and cultural differences in preferences for valence and arousal in music using regional music charts - Lewis Nitschinsk, Dianna Vidas, Hugh T McGovern, Nicholas MA Smith, 2026

Music can evoke and enable emotional expression. Yet few studies have investigated which aspects of music preference are universal, and which aspects vary geogr...

journals.sagepub.com

🧵 First clinical trial ever conducted in a state-regulated psychedelic program just published. Oregon's psilocybin program has served 20,000+ people but the majority are wealthy out-of-state travelers. This study targeted low-income participants to test feasibility. #psychedelicscience

It's really good to see AE's being reported right in the abstract, alongside benefits. From leading Australian psychedelic researchers 🙂

Such a beautifully written piece about how medical hyper-specialisation makes it difficult to connect the dots as a complex systems approach would require.

Dr Lucy Foulkes@lucyfoulkes.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Last month, I found out I have hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, after decades of chronic pain and medical disinterest. I've decided to write publicly about this, not just about hypermobility and its health impacts, but about how it feels when doctors don't care: medium.com/p/4fea6398b8ba

Looks like we have a 7th placebo controlled trial on microdosing psychedelics showing microdosing did not outperform placebo, this time for depression. #psychedelicscience www.linkedin.com/posts/justin...

Microdosing in Depression Trial Initial Results | Justin Hanka | 17 comments

I'm still in disbelief! 😯 After so many years of clinical trials and hope for this treatment for depression, the initial results are in, and its not what we expected or hoped for, but we learned a ...

linkedin.com

People always conflate a lot of other things with consciousness that can be logically separated from it

Pekka Lund@pekka.bsky.social · last yr.

"there will be no way out when a problem arises with conscious AI. Once it becomes conscious, it is already uncontrollable" I don't understand this line of thinking. Why do people assume consciousness is functional? And would it like suddenly begin flipping bits beyond the defined computations?

You may be cool, but you'll never be as cool as these two cats wearing sunglasses in the window of an optician's Boulevard St Germain in 1925

this one is for #dragontuesday

very much enjoyed being involved in this thought-provoking work led by @htmcgovern.bsky.social with @robincarhartharris.bsky.social and Selen Atasoy :)

Hugh McGovern PhD@htmcgovern.bsky.social · 10mo ago

New paper in @nconsc.bsky.social with @marcoaqil.bsky.social, Selen Atasoy, and @robincarhartharris.bsky.social. An ambitious one to be sure..... doi.org/10.1093/nc/n...

New paper in @nconsc.bsky.social with @marcoaqil.bsky.social, Selen Atasoy, and @robincarhartharris.bsky.social. An ambitious one to be sure..... doi.org/10.1093/nc/n...

If you need a brief doomscroll break (you do) then watch this very precious little baby bear having a tantrum because his mama needed a minute to herself 🥹🐻 (Via melbird3 on TikTok)

new paper just dropped in Brain and Behaviour, with @bman1285.bsky.social and colleagues: doi.org/10.1002/brb3...

Deconstructing Psychedelic Phenomenology: A Thematic Analysis of Discrete Phases of the Psychedelic Experience

A thematic analysis of psychedelic experiences was partitioned into three temporal phases: before, during, and after the experience. Themes before the experience were preparatory intentions and perce...

doi.org

Always good to remember.

It's finally out! Large study led by @lenaedibrainz.bsky.social surveying Aussie GP's psychologists, and psychiatrists attitudes towards psychedelic therapy. doi.org/10.1177/0004...

Attitudes toward psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy among Australian mental healthcare providers - Zohaib Nadeem, Stephen Parker, Hugh McGovern, Bianca Sebben, Lena KL Oestreich, 2025

Background: Recent regulatory changes in Australia have approved 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine for treating post-traumatic stress disorder and psilocybin fo...

doi.org

Doing psychedelic research with Spanish-speaking populations & interested in avoidance/acceptance? There is now a culturally decentered Spanish APEQ version designed to work equally well across the Spanish-speaking world: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

ENROL NOW in Australia's first university-accredited short course in psychedelic therapies! 🖥️ 12 weeks, fully online, starts late July 🌏 Open to anyone with an undergrad degree More info and enrol here: 👉 www.monash.edu/psychedelic-... 📧 psychedelic-edu-pg@monash.edu

3 of my papers (2 preprints) made the list! Great resource and great for scoping out all that was published last year

josh hardman@josh-hardman.bsky.social · last yr.

📚✨ ~500 Papers. ~30 Researchers & Experts. One Annotated Psychedelics Bibliography... Very excited to share the 2024 edition of Psychedelic Alpha's Interdisciplinary Annotated Psychedelic Research Bibliography, by @michaelhaichin.bsky.social. psychedelicalpha.com/news/the-int...

Interesting read, although slightly inflammatory and somewhat unsubstantiated claims on the potential for psychedelics to be addictive.

Michael Inzlicht@minzlicht.bsky.social · last yr.

New post: Examining the gap between psychedelic promises and scientific reality. Small, transient effects with major methodological issues don't justify the revolutionary claims. Recreational use? Fine. Mental health miracle? Not so fast. Evidence just isn't there. open.substack.com/pub/michaeli...

A paralysed man can stand on his own after receiving an injection of neural stem cells to treat his spinal cord injury https://go.nature.com/41YLmhC

Paralysed man stands again after receiving ‘reprogrammed’ stem cells

Another man also regained some movement, but two others experienced minimal improvement.

go.nature.com

Great episode, appreciate the nuance and the very forthright “Im no longer on X. I moved to bsky.”

Hugh McGovern PhD@htmcgovern.bsky.social · last yr.

I recently appeared on the Psychedelic Medicine podcast with Dr. Lynn Marie Morski, where we discussed this paper here (doi.org/10.1038/s442...). You can check it out here open.spotify.com/episode/3858... Thanks for having me Lynn :)