Magic mushrooms temporarily 'dissolve' brain network responsible for sense of self

A GIF showing a dynamic heat map of a brain. Normal activity patterns are shown in blue and green and then there's a flash of yellow and orange to indicate a dramatic change.

Psilocybin, the compound that makes magic mushrooms trippy, works its magic by desynchronizing the brain network responsible for a person's sense of self, new research finds.

Psilocybin warps people's sense of time and space, as well as shifts their feelings of connection to the world around them. While most of these subjective effects wane pretty quickly, the new study finds that some changes in the brain persist for weeks after a high dose of psilocybin.