Complex slow waves in the human brain under 5-MeO-DMT.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Uncontrolled before-and-after human experimental study
PubMed 40700019 · doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116040
What was done
Electroencephalography (EEG) data were recorded in 29 healthy individuals before and after inhaling a high dose (12-mg) of vaporized synthetic 5-MeO-DMT to assess cortical oscillatory and spatiotemporal dynamics.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values or statistical metrics. Inhaled 5-MeO-DMT amplified low-frequency oscillations, altered low-frequency flows (making them heterogeneous, viscous, nonrecurring, and halting their forward-backward cortical travel), and induced more stable low-dimensional broadband behavior with increased energy barriers for rapid global shifts.
Why it matters
This study provides an empirical electrophysiological characterization of 5-MeO-DMT in humans, identifying slow-wave dynamics that inform neuroscientific models of serotonergic psychedelics.
Limits
The study is a small (n = 29) open-label, pre-post design without a placebo control group. The abstract provides no quantitative effect sizes, variance estimates, or subjective behavioral measurements.
Cited by
- supports Preliminary neuroimaging and EEG data on 5-MeO-DMT indicate that it induces slow-wave brain activity in addition to psychedelic brain expansion.