Frederick Barrett

Frederick Streeter Barrett is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and works at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research.

From his TED MED bio: “[Frederick S. Barrett] explores the neural basis of emotional functioning and altered states of consciousness at the intersection of music, pharmacological interventions, behavioral measures, computerized testing, and brain imaging techniques. Frederick’s latest research sheds light on the acute and long-term effects of psychedelic experiences on emotions, cognition, and the brain. He has shown that psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and LSD, when they are active in the body, disrupt brain networks that support cognitive control. This may occur by short-circuiting a key brain region called the claustrum, which is the potential seat of consciousness in the brain. At the same time, psychedelic drugs facilitate activity in brain regions that support emotions, memories, and meaning-making, especially brain regions that are recruited by music. The long-term effects of this experience include a reduction in negative emotions and an enduring increase in positive emotions, which may, in part, explain the therapeutic value of psychedelics when treating mood and substance use disorders.”

Notable Research Papers

Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behaviors (Griffiths et al., 2018)
Survey study of challenging experiences after ingesting psilocybin mushrooms: Acute and enduring positive and negative consequences (Carbonaro et al., 2016)
Validation of the revised Mystical Experience Questionnaire in experimental sessions with psilocybin (Barrett et al., 2015)

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In our database you will also find him as an author on many more papers.