Dr.Anas Fidni

Classical psychedelics such as psilocin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) produce marked changes in perception, affect, self-experience, temporal awareness, and meaning attribution. Although serotonin 5-HT2A receptor signalling plays a central role in their acute effects, recent large-scale pharmacological profiling indicates that these compounds engage broader and partly distinguishable ensembles of serotonergic, dopaminergic, and adrenergic receptors. Psychedelic action should therefore be examined not only through a single-receptor model, but also through polypharmacological and systems-pharmacology approaches. This research develops a multilevel framework connecting three domains of analysis. First, the molecular component characterizes the interaction profiles of classical and atypical psychedelics through affinity-data mapping, ligand-based target prediction, reverse docking, targeted molecular docking, and network pharmacology. The objective is to identify shared and compound-specific target profiles and to generate experimentally testable hypotheses concerning previously underexplored molecular targets. Second, the systems-neuroscience component examines how pharmacological perturbation is associated with changes in large-scale brain organization. Current human neuroimaging findings support acute reductions in network integrity, increased communication across conventionally segregated networks, brain-wide desynchronization, and changes in the complexity and temporal organization of neural activity. These effects are investigated as candidate intermediate mechanisms linking receptor-level modulation to changes in conscious state, rather than as direct explanations of particular subjective contents. Third, the psychological and phenomenological component examines recurrent alterations in the structure of phenomenal consciousness, including changes in self–world boundaries, perceptual salience, affective intensity, autobiographical processing, symbolic experience, and meaning-making. Acute experiential qualities have been associated with subsequent clinical improvement in some studies; however, their causal and necessary roles remain unresolved. The proposed model therefore does not assume a one-to-one correspondence between receptors, neural states, and qualia. Instead, it formulates testable cross-level relationships among multi-target pharmacology, brain-network dynamics, psychological processes, and the qualitative structure of conscious experience. By integrating these levels while preserving their methodological distinctions, the project aims to clarify how molecular interventions can modulate phenomenal consciousness and generate clinically relevant transformations in self-experience and meaning.