Katrin Preller

Katrin H. Preller is a neuroscientist and clinical researcher whose work focuses on the neural and psychological mechanisms of classic psychedelics in humans. Her research brings together psychopharmacology, functional neuroimaging and careful behavioural phenotyping to understand how serotonergic psychedelics reshape large-scale brain networks and conscious experience. She has emphasised translational questions about receptor-specific action, the neural basis of altered states, and the implications for psychiatric disorders.

Preller's major contributions include experimental pharmacological–MRI studies demonstrating that LSD-induced changes in global and thalamic connectivity are attributable to 5-HT2A receptor activation, analyses of effective connectivity during LSD-induced altered states, and investigations of how psychedelics affect imagery, empathy and moral decision-making. Across this body of work she has helped clarify mechanistic links between receptor pharmacology, network-level brain dynamics and measurable changes in perception and social cognition, informing both basic science and the therapeutic rationale for psychedelic-assisted interventions.