Adeel Razi, PhD - Mechanisms of Mind: Bridging Generative Brain Models and Psychedelic Neuroscience

Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre 

Understanding how the brain flexibly reconfigures its connectivity across time, space, and context is a major goal in systems neuroscience. In this talk, I will present recent advances in generative modelling of brain connectivity developed to address this challenge using multimodal neuroimaging data. Building on the framework of Dynamic Causal Modelling, I will introduce novel approaches that integrate functional MRI, diffusion imaging, and electrophysiological recordings to infer hidden neuronal states and directed interactions across brain regions. These methods offer a principled way to combine anatomical constraints with dynamic functional measurements, enabling more accurate and mechanistically interpretable models of brain function. I will also briefly describe a complementary foundation model that learns robust, interpretable brain representations by fusing time series, structural, and effective connectivity data using transformer-based architectures.

In the second part of the talk, I will demonstrate the application of these tools to altered states of consciousness, focusing on new findings from PsiConnect, the largest multimodal imaging study to date of the acute psychedelic state. Combining multi-echo fMRI and 64-channel EEG across systematically varied sensory and psychological contexts, we identify a structured shift from sensory-driven to associative cortical processing under psilocybin. Using advanced connectivity analyses and machine learning, we uncover a reproducible neural signature of the psychedelic state that tracks with subjective experience and predicts therapeutically relevant outcomes at the individual level. Contrary to the view of psychedelics as inducing disordered brain activity, our findings reveal a coherent, context-sensitive reorganisation of cortical dynamics. We introduce embeddedness as a mechanistic framework for integrating internal and external perception, offering a novel perspective on how transient altered states can lead to sustained psychological change. Together, this work bridges advances in generative modelling, neuroimaging, and psychedelic science to inform both theories of brain function and the future of personalised mental health interventions.