Opportunity Overview
Psychedelic therapies offer a potentially paradigm-shifting approach to the treatment of many mental health conditions
including depression, anxiety, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, the mechanism of action of
psychedelics remains poorly understood, and this has led to new investment and interest in not only studying the clinical
effects of psychedelics, but also their fundamental biology. The heterogeneity of psychological disorders which
apparently benefit from psychedelic therapy presents a challenge to understanding underlying mechanisms and
highlights the importance of studying mechanisms which are transdiagnostic (shared across different diagnostic groups).
Furthermore, psychedelics typically exhibit complex pharmacological profiles, and interact with many different receptor
populations.
Current understanding of the mechanism of action of psychedelics, such as psilocybin, emphasises its ability to act as an
agonist at the 5-HT2A receptor and cause an enhancement of both synaptic plasticity and cognitive flexibility. These
acute effects may enable changes in the memory representations that maintain states of poor mental health. The
mechanisms by which psychedelics affect neural plasticity are not completely known, and importantly its functional
importance for mediating change in cognition and behaviour is poorly characterised. In this project we aim to address
these unknowns by investigating the effects of psychedelics on representations of memory in the hippocampus,
integrating expertise in rodent behaviour, in vivo imaging and brain slice electrophysiology.
We have developed a method to directly measure cognitive memory representations in the neural activity of the rodent
hippocampus using 2-photon imaging to monitor hippocampal CA1 place cell activity in mice as they navigate in virtual
reality. We and others have shown that hippocampal place cell representations adapt to defined changes in the
environment, particularly for salient...
including depression, anxiety, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, the mechanism of action of
psychedelics remains poorly understood, and this has led to new investment and interest in not only studying the clinical
effects of psychedelics, but also their fundamental biology. The heterogeneity of psychological disorders which
apparently benefit from psychedelic therapy presents a challenge to understanding underlying mechanisms and
highlights the importance of studying mechanisms which are transdiagnostic (shared across different diagnostic groups).
Furthermore, psychedelics typically exhibit complex pharmacological profiles, and interact with many different receptor
populations.
Current understanding of the mechanism of action of psychedelics, such as psilocybin, emphasises its ability to act as an
agonist at the 5-HT2A receptor and cause an enhancement of both synaptic plasticity and cognitive flexibility. These
acute effects may enable changes in the memory representations that maintain states of poor mental health. The
mechanisms by which psychedelics affect neural plasticity are not completely known, and importantly its functional
importance for mediating change in cognition and behaviour is poorly characterised. In this project we aim to address
these unknowns by investigating the effects of psychedelics on representations of memory in the hippocampus,
integrating expertise in rodent behaviour, in vivo imaging and brain slice electrophysiology.
We have developed a method to directly measure cognitive memory representations in the neural activity of the rodent
hippocampus using 2-photon imaging to monitor hippocampal CA1 place cell activity in mice as they navigate in virtual
reality. We and others have shown that hippocampal place cell representations adapt to defined changes in the
environment, particularly for salient...
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Start FreeSolicitation Details
| Issuing agency | BBSRC |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Category | Research Development |
| Published | September 30, 2023 |
| Procurement stage | Active solicitation |
| Response due | September 29, 2027 |
| Status | Open — accepting responses |
| Official source | View original notice |
| Last verified | August 12, 2026 |
Source: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) — Open Government Licence v3.0.
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