Conor Murray, Ph.D.
Neuroscientist; Psilocybin EEG Researcher, UCLA
UCLA neuroscientist whose EEG research on psilocybin's effects on brain oscillations and neural dynamics provides real-time measurement of how psilocybin alters the electrical activity of the brain.
Biography
Conor Murray is a neuroscientist at UCLA whose research focuses on how psilocybin and related psychedelic compounds alter neural oscillations and the dynamics of brain electrical activity, measured through electroencephalography (EEG). His work contributes to the growing body of neuroimaging research establishing how psilocybin changes brain function at a mechanistic level.
EEG research on psychedelics is an important complement to fMRI approaches: while fMRI provides spatial resolution (where in the brain activity is occurring), EEG provides temporal resolution (when neural events are happening, at the millisecond timescale). This temporal precision is critical for understanding how psilocybin affects the rhythmic coordination of neural activity — the oscillations that organize information processing across brain regions.
Murray's research at UCLA's Semel Institute is part of the broader West Coast academic psychedelic research infrastructure that includes UCSF and Stanford, collectively producing significant clinical and mechanistic research outside the East Coast academic centers at Hopkins and NYU. His EEG work has examined how psilocybin affects specific frequency bands of neural oscillation — including gamma, alpha, and theta rhythms — that are associated with different cognitive and perceptual functions.
His findings contribute to understanding why psilocybin produces perceptual alterations, changes in time perception, and alterations in self-referential thought — connecting the pharmacology of the compound to the real-time dynamics of the brain systems that produce conscious experience.
Organizations
Why They Matter to the LearnShrooms Community
EEG measurement of psychedelic brain states provides a window into the real-time neural dynamics that fMRI and other neuroimaging modalities cannot resolve. Murray's work is building the temporal-resolution picture of what psilocybin does to the brain — essential for understanding mechanisms of action and for identifying neural biomarkers that could predict treatment response.
Legal Context
For the legal landscape where Conor Murray, Ph.D. operates, see psilocybin laws in California.